Karnataka researchers set up clinical data collecting platform

BENGALURU: While the medical fraternity and researchers in India are trying to find their own ways to understand the deadly pandemic COVID-19, some of them in Karnataka have decided to pool in data from doctors across India to set up a clinical data collecting platform, specifically for Indian patients testing positive for the disease. The idea is initiated by Anant Bhan, Researcher, Bioethics, Global Health Policy, along with Dr Chitra Selvan, associate professor, Endocrinology, Ramaiah Medical College.

They have come up with a unifying clinical platform for information collection to analyse and interpret data across institutions and clinicians. This draft was uploaded on social media which would have to be completed by various doctors treating COVID-19 patients. Dr Gautam Menon, Professor at The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai, tweeted: “There are multiple groups at the data science/ modelling end who would be able to make use of this if the data is collated in a uniform format and made generally available for analysis.” Meanwhile, Dr Chitra said they have sent the draft to the Indian Council of Medical Research and also to the Principal Scientific Adviser’s Office for approval as well as seeking government leadership which would help better access and use this data. “It is only these nonpharmaceutical interventions that can mobilise the masses, aggregate the wisdom from all the stakeholders and provide meaningful resolutions,” said Dr Giridhar Babu, public health expert.

Dr Chitra said, “We have followed the China model and primarily need information at two stages. One, when the positive symptoms of a patient are confirmed, age, co-morbidities, treatment plan, medicines provided will be recorded. After this, once the patient recovers, another set of information on recovery.” However, Dr Syliva Karpagam, a public health doctor, said, “It’s good to have a national database of the diseases but it should be a government initiative which is adequately funded, transparent and widely available.”