In order to give a boost to medical research as well as facilitate smooth transfer of technology to the grassroot level, the State Government is set to move the Centre for setting up seven Model Rural Health Research Units (MRHRUs).
It has earmarked SCB Medical College and Hospital at Cuttack, VSSMCH at Burla and MKCGMCH at Berhampur, Capital Hospital at Bhubaneswar along with district headquarters hospitals of Balangir, Koraput and Sambalpur to set up the research units.
Director of Medical Education and Training, principals of the three medical colleges and Director of Health Services have been asked to chalk out detailed plans and course-of-action for the MRHRUs and submit them soon for forwarding them to the Union Health Ministry.
A meeting in this regard was chaired by Health Secretary PK Mohapatra here on Tuesday.
The MRHRUs would be established under the national scheme to be implemented by the Department of Health Research (DHR) under the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry.
The scheme has been developed on the model of a functional HRU of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) at Ghatampur in Uttar Pradesh which has successfully demonstrated how modern technology and research, that are restricted to national centres and medical colleges, can be transferred and used in rural setting for providing most effective healthcare to the population at the grassroots.
Funds would be provided by the Centre and the programme would cover all the States during the 12th Plan period.
The MRHRUs would be set up at a cost of ` 5.25 crore per unit.
The focus of these facilities would be on identifying the health and disease patterns in the region they are based at and directing medical research in those areas.
Besides, MRHRUs would develop infrastructure to make new and existing technologies available to the people in the far flung areas.
MRHRUs would be required to develop State or area specific research models taking the disease and health profile, morbidity patterns, topography and climate, societal and behavioural aspects into consideration.
They would be linked to the Regional Medical Research Centre (RMRC) as the mentor institution for guidance on basic, applied and clinical research activities relevant to local needs.
They would function on operational research mode and serve as model units to transfer technology to the State system for its application in rural settings.