Government Jobs for Pharmacists : West Bengal Staff Selection Commission

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Combined Technical Level Recruitment 2015 

(Exam Code : CTL 15)

Online Applications are invited from eligible Indian Citizens for recruitment Pharmacists Grade III posts, selection of which will be made by the West Bengal Staff Selection Commission in terms of section 6 (1) of the West Bengal Staff Selection Commission Act, 2011.
Pharmacist Grade III : 35 posts (UR-18, LV-01, SC-08, ST-02, BC: A-03, BC:B-03)

* UR : Unreserved; * LV - Low Vision

Eligibility Criteria: 

Passed Higher Secondary Examination of the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education or its equivalent with Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics / Biology and a two year Diploma Course in Pharmacy recognized by the Government of West Bengal and registered as ‘A’ category Pharmacist under West Bengal Pharmacy Council.

Post code: 490

Department : Directorate of ESI (MB) Scheme,

Labour Department, Govt. of West Bengal

Pay Scale: Pay Band- III (Rs. 7,100/- - 37,600/-) Grade Pay - Rs. 3,600/-

Age Relaxations:

For all posts upper age limit is relaxable -

- by 5 years for SC and ST candidates of West Bengal,

- by 3 years for BC - A and BC - B candidates of West Bengal,

- by 5 years for Persons with Disabilities (having physical disability of at least 40% and above), 

- by 2 years for candidates who have been in Government service continuously for at least two years. 

- Age relaxation for the Ex-Servicemen candidates will be given as per existing Govt. rules and regulations. 

- Date of birth as recorded in Madhyamik or Equivalent Admit Card/Certificate will only be accepted as a valid proof for verification of Age.

Period of Application:

Applications may be submitted only through Online with effect from the date of Advertisement in Newspaper & Commission’s Website up to 8th June, 2015 (4.00 P.M.). No application shall be received after the last date and time for Submission of Applications. 

For online application form visit this link: Online Application Form

For Complete details go through this link: 

Complete details

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Deepak Kumar Bandari,

Pharm.D Intern,

Vaagdevi College of Pharmacy - India

Elsevier Student Ambassador - South Asia

Regulatory Affairs : A Career option for Pharm.D

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Regulatory Affairs:

Pharma regulatory affairs professionals play an essential role in ensuring all pharmaceutical products comply with regulations governing the industry. The regulatory function in health care industries is vital in making safe and effective health care products available worldwide. Individuals who ensure regulatory compliance and prepare submissions, as well as those whose main job function is clinical affairs or quality assurance are all considered regulatory professionals.

Regulatory professionals are employed in industry, government and academia and are involved with a wide range of products, including:

1. Pharmaceuticals
2. Medical devices
3. In vitro diagnostics
4. Biologics and biotechnology
5. Nutritional products
6. Cosmetics
7. Veterinary products

The regulatory professional’s roles and responsibilities often begin in the research and development phases, moving into clinical trials and extending through premarket approvals, manufacturing, labeling and advertising and post market surveillance. As PharmD graduates have full fledged on clinical trials, research and development phases they can be considered to apply various positions in regulatory affairs, though it is just an option to consider.

Here are the various positions in Regulatory affairs in Pharmaceutical industry 

Duties and responsibilities of personnel:

1. The Regulatory affairs personnel ensures all company products meet worldwide regulatory requirements by supporting all assigned regulatory aspects of product approval and post-marketing compliance. 
2. Responsible for the coordination and preparation of document packages for regulatory submissions ensuring compliance with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and international regulations/ interpretations. 
3. This may include the review, evaluation, and compilation of files and reports for submissions. 
4. Provides project team representation and direction in managing information from/to other departments (including R&D, Manufacturing, Quality Assurance, Quality Control, Medical Affairs, Marketing, and Clinical Affairs) regarding Regulatory submissions.
5. This may include the preparation of outlines, summaries, status reports, graphs, charts, tables and slides for distribution and communication to other departments.
6. Reviews technical and clinical documentation and recommends changes for labeling, manufacturing, marketing, and clinical protocol for regulatory compliance.
7. Researches and analyzes regulatory information and determines acceptability of data, procedures, and other product-related documentation presented in support of product registration.
8. Is responsible for the timely completion of regulatory projects and submission of documentation to regulatory agencies. Develops and maintains current regulatory knowledge and keeps abreast of regulatory procedures and changes.
9. Also provides regulatory guidance to project teams and junior staff.

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Deepak Kumar Bandari,

Pharm.D Intern,

Vaagdevi College of Pharmacy - India

Elsevier Student Ambassador - South Asia

Clinical Trial Data Management : A Career Option for Pharm.D

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Clinical Data Management:

Clinical trial data management and statistical analysis is one such area which is growing rapidly, whose primary responsibility is to ensure the validity of clinical trial data and format them for statistical purposes. It is the collection, integration and validation of clinical trial data. As the review and approval of of new drugs by regulatory agencies is totally dependent on the quality of trial data the companies has to ensure the integrity and confidence in the results of the trial data.

The management of clinical trial data involves various steps as follows: 

1. Data acquisition/collection
2. Data abstraction/extraction
3. Data processing/coding
4. Data analysis
5. Data transmission and storage
6. Data privacy and confidentiality
7. Data Quality Assurance

Here is the schematic representation of various positions in Clinical Trial and Clinical Data Management in various Multinational Companies

Requirements and duties to be a part of Clinical Trial Data Management: 

1. Data managers also designs collection instruments, sets up databases and tracks and manages the flow of data to and from the investigative sites. 
2. They establish protocol-specific data review and entry guidelines to document data validation and formatting procedures and defines batch-ending programs by monitoring timely data entry. 
3. Reviewing of data discrepancies, resolutions provided by the investigative sites and entry corrections in the database has to be carried out in the data management. 
4. The Clinical Trial Management crew assists in reviewing of interim/final data listings prior to transmission to other groups or inclusion in final reports.
5. Has to be familiar with database management systems and the principles, organization and content of standard Case Report Form (CRF) libraries which ensures the tracking of incoming CRFs in a timely manner prior to safety review and upon manual review.
6. Conducts database audits according to established SOPs and is familiar with the implementation of Good Clinical Practices and should be familiar with data coding of Standard Operating Practices (SOP) and coding dictionaries. 

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Pharm.D Intern,

Vaagdevi College of Pharmacy - India

Elsevier Student Ambassador - South Asia

Career Options in Pharmacovigilance : Gist of Pharm.D

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Today, I would like to discuss about the importance of Pharm.D in Pharmacovigilance and available career options in India.

What is Pharmacovigilance?

Pharmacovigilance is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as “the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any other drug-related problems". It is the science of collecting, monitoring, researching, assessing and evaluating information from healthcare providers and patients on the adverse effects of medications, biological products and traditional medicines to identify new information about hazards associated with medicines preventing harm to patients. Simply it's a part of patient care and can be treated as post marketing surveillance.

An international system for monitoring adverse reactions to drugs (ADRs) was established in 1971. WHO Headquarters is responsible for policy issues while the operational responsibility for the programme rests with the WHO Collaborating Centre for International Drug Monitoring, Uppsala Monitoring Centre, (UMC), in Sweden. The ADRs database in Uppsala currently contains over three million reports of suspected ADRs.

Career options:

Drug companies from many countries outsource their data to the IT companies in India due to less processing costs and availability of trained personnel. The Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) has made mandatory for IT companies like Accenture, Cognizant, Tata Consultancy Services, Quintiles etc to establish a pharmacovigilance centre and submit the reports on time. Outsourcing of data of major of the pharmaceutical companies will be done through IT companies, where these firms works for both clinical trials and postmarketing surveillance. - Says Akram Ahmad et al; Emerging Job Opportunities for PharmD graduates looking outside the box.

Pharm.D graduates can be hired under the PvPI programme by the Government of India, as they have relatively practical exposure to the patient centered care, Medical conditions, experience in history interview, knowledge of pharmaceutical products, as a part of their curriculum they possess expertise knowledge on pharmacovigilance and clinical research. Pharm.D graduates are practically trained to identify, assess, monitor, report and document adverse events in their clerkship and internship. The reporting is usually done after the causality assessment by Naranjo's or WHO causality assessment scale in a well designed and well structured format proposed by the PvPI under the supervision of a Registered practitioner. As PharmD graduates have expertise knowledge on patient health condition, disease state, therapeutic knowledge and evidence based practice compared to other graduates, active roles in Pharmacovigilance can be lead by PharmD graduates. By considering this the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) has passed a vacancy circular for 50 positions as Technical Associates as a part of PvPI programme. (For more details on Vacancy see at the bottom of the page)

Here is the schematic representation of various positions in Multinational Companies in Pharmacovigilance department: 

Drug Safety Associate manage activities relating to the collection, processing, follow-up, analysis, and regulatory reporting of adverse events (AEs) and serious adverse events (SAEs) for marketed products and investigational products.

1. The DSA ensures timely submission of reports regulatory agencies in accordance with applicable regulations and that all inquiries from the FDA and other drug regulatory agencies are responded to in a timely manner.
2. The DSA will respond to inquiries from healthcare professionals, consumers, and company personnel regarding safety issues with marketed products. 
3. Prepares periodic comprehensive written reviews of all assigned AEs; identify potential sources of product litigation, extract AE data from various clinical trial cases and spontaneous sources.
4. Manages case-related information including interpretation of medical conditions, lab results, and procedures as well as compile complete narrative summaries
5. Ensures proper coding (MedDRA) into the global AE database.

Foot prints of Pharmacovigilance in patient safety:

Pharmacovigilance is an approach in reshaping the patient safety ensuring safety and efficacy of drugs. In 2012, over 53,000 adverse reactions to health products were reported, with almost 60% related to drugs among 79% were serious such as requiring/prolonging hospitalization or causing congenital malformation, disability or death. About one-third of reports were submitted by unspecified health care professionals and about one-quarter were submitted by physicians. Pharmacists submitted only 10% of reports, interestingly, 20% less than consumers or non–healthcare professionals. 

Source of this image: Arden R.Barry et al.; Importance of maintaining Pharmacovigilance - Canadian Pharmacists Journal 

For best details on Pharmacovigilance Visit the following websites:

1. http://www.who.int/medicines/areas/quality_safety/safety_efficacy/pharmvigi/en/
2. http://who-umc.org/
3. http://www.ich.org/products/guidelines.html
4. http://www.ema.europa.eu/

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Deepak Kumar Bandari,

Pharm.D Intern,

Vaagdevi College of Pharmacy - India

Elsevier Student Ambassador - South Asia

Career Options for Pharm.D in Medical Writing : An Indian perspective

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Today, I would like to discuss about the importance of Medical writing and career options in Medical writing.

* Any graduate in Pharmacy is eligible to apply, mostly preference will be given for MBBS, MD, BDS graduates and now even for PharmD.

Medical writing is the activity of producing scientific documentation by a specialized writer with special skills to produce well-structured documents that present information clearly and concisely.

1. Creates documents that effectively and clearly describe research results, product use and other medical information.
2. The medical writer also makes sure the documents comply with regulatory, journal, or other guidelines in terms of content, format and structure.
3. The drive for complex process of clinical trials leads to a demand for well written, standards-compliant documents that science professionals can read and understand easily and quickly.
4. Responsible for the timely preparation, production and quality control of regulatory documents, including coordinating with regulatory project teams, creating editorial timelines and workflow specifications, scheduling and tracking documents.
5. Assess documentation staffing needs, participates in “round-table” review of documents, establishing project-specific style guidelines, editing at various levels, writing and proofreading.
6. Develops and updates specifications for the design, format production elements, tracking of regulatory documents and artwork used in regulatory documents.
7. Hires, trains and supervises editorial temporaries and coordinates their work. Develops and updates departmental editorial style standards by preparing and revising a style guide.
8. Provides guidance on writing to authors of regulatory submissions, and develops and updates general writing guidelines by preparing and revising an author’s guide.

Types of Medical writing

Medical Journalism:

Newspaper & magazine articles. These are mostly for general public and lay people and need to be written in simple, non-technical language.

Medical Education:

1. For Physicians – textbooks, Continued Medical Education (CME) programs, slide decks, e-learning modules
2. For Patients – patient education material

Medical marketing of healthcare products:

1. Promotional literature targeted at healthcare professionals, product monographs, brochures, handouts
2. Sales force training manuals, e-learning modules
3. Internet content for physicians and patients (consumers)

Publication/Presentation:

1. Journal articles / manuscripts (research articles, case reports, review articles)
2. Abstracts
3. Posters & presentations for scientific meetings and conferences

Research Documents:

1. Clinical trial protocols
2. Investigator's′ Brochure
3. Informed Consent Documents
4. Study reports
5. Research proposals

Regulatory Documents:

1. Package Inserts (prescribing information)
2. Patient Information Leaflets
3. Clinical study reports, web synopses
4. Subject narratives
5. Regulatory submission documents – Common Technical Document (CTD) modules such as nonclinical and clinical overviews and summaries
6. Expert reports
7. Safety and efficacy summaries.
8. Aggregate safety reports such as Periodic Safety Update Reports ( PSURs), bridging reports.
9. Periodic Adverse Drug Experience Reports (PADER)
10. Annual safety reports (ASR)s and policy papers.

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Vaagdevi College of Pharmacy - India

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68th World Health Assembly : A Debut free access for all

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India assumes Presidency again, after 19 years - Pride for India if  the assumption comes true...

Today, I would like to discuss about World Health Assembly, its objectives, its impact on member states and its influence on developing countries. 

What is World Health Assembly??

World Health Organization (WHO) is the only International Organization with universal political legitimacy on global health issues. World Health Assembly is the supreme decision-making body that determines the policies of WHO with delegations from 194 Member States and with an Executive board of 34 technically qualified professionals of highest level of health to approve the proposed budget. The 1st Assembly was held in 1948 and the 68th session of the World Health Assembly takes place in Geneva, Switzerland from 18th May - 26th May 2015. Currently there are over 700 WHO collaborating centres in over 80 Member States working with WHO in different areas like nursing, occupational health, communicable diseases, nutrition, mental health, chronic diseases and health technologies.

Objectives of World Health Assembly??

Reforms will be made in every assembly for effective health promotion to achieve these common objectives: (Mentioned in simple and precise  manner for easy understanding to students)

1. To establish an effective collaboration with the United Nations, specialized agencies, governmental health administrations and professional groups.
2. Strengthens health services all over the world by assisting respective Governments.
3. Furnishes technical assistance and, in emergencies, necessary aid upon the request or acceptance of Governments.
4. Establishes and maintains administrative and technical services like epidemiological and statistical data.
5. Promotes maternal and child health and welfare and to foster the ability to live harmoniously in a changing total environment.
6. Promotes the prevention of accidental injuries.
7. Stimulates advance work to eradicate epidemic, endemic and other diseases.
8. Promotes the improvement of nutrition, housing, sanitation, recreation, economic or working conditions and other aspects of environmental hygiene.
9. Promotes co-operation among scientific and professional groups which contribute to the advancement of health.
10. Provides information, counsel and assistance in the field of health.
11. Assists in developing an informed public opinion among all peoples on matters of health.
12. Establishes and revise international nomenclatures of diseases, of causes of death and of public health practices.
13. Standardized diagnostic procedures as necessary.
14. Develops, establishes and promote international standards with respect to food, biological, pharmaceutical and similar products.

Benefit to India:

According to the reports of WHO, India shows a 100% collaboration with the World Health Organization and 68th World Health Assembly lead by India at Geneva from May 18-27, 2015. India assumes the Presidency in 68th World Health Assembly after 19 years. This event is expected to deliberate on the plan of action on innovation and intellectual property and other key issues of global interest including antimicrobial resistance, air pollution and health, global health emergency. This collaboration will set up working relations and standards in areas like:

1. Food safety
2. Nutrition
3. Nursing and Midwifery
4. Communicable diseases
5. Traditional medicine
6. International Classification 
7. Tobacco control
8. Radiation
9. Health promotion
10. Occupational Health
11. Deafness prevention

The Minister of Health & Family Welfare Jagat Prakash Nadda will preside over the 68th Session of the World Health Assembly. The Union Minister is leading a high level Indian delegation to the WHA, to be held in Geneva during 18-27 May, 2015 - Says the Political sources.

Debut Live Webcast:

For the first time, WHO provides the ability to remotely follow the work of the sixty-eighth session of the World Health Assembly live. The live webcast will begin on 18th May at 2pm IST to 26th May. For webcasting go through this link at the mentioned time.

Link for Webcasting : A free access to World Health Assembly

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Pharm.D Intern,

Vaagdevi College of Pharmacy - India

Elsevier Student Ambassador - South Asia

Statistics of Indian Research : Two sides of the same Coin

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Background:

India is a democratic and second largest populous country in the world with rapidly expanding economy and scientific production at an impressive rate. India has started the 21st Century well behind Russia, France, Italy and Canada, this needs empowerment and advancements in technology and scientific endeavours. In terms of yearly publications India leads all these countries by healthy margins and now its about to reach Japan. Despite of these gains, Indian publications generate fewer citations on an average when compared to emerging countries like China and Brazil. The brighter spots include several world class centres for science, education and technology investing sufficient funds in Research & Development (R&D). More women almost 14% are participating in science in India heading towards the global progress. 

Top 10 Elite research institutions in India:

1. Punjab University -Chandigarh
2. Tata Institute of Fundamental Research - Mumbai
3. Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science - Kolkata
4. CSIR Chemistry and Physics - 5 locations
5. Indian Institute of Technology - Mumbai
6. Indian Institute of Science - Bengaluru
7. Indian Institute of Technology - Guwahati
8. CSIR industry and standards - 12 locations
9. Indian Institute of Technology - Kharagpur 
10. Indian Institute of Technology - Chennai

This image is copied from Nature - News Feature; the author of this blog is not responsible for incorrect geographical map of India

Investments in Research and Development: 

India is Asia's second largest country, but has very few scientists; as many Indian born researchers leave for higher positions in abroad and very very few foreign scientists settle in India. The country invests adequate economy in Research & Development and produces relatively very less patents per capita compared to other nations. China's research spending has shot up to almost 2% of its GDP, India languishes around 0.9% and lags behind Brazil and Russia. India spends 171 thousand US $ per researcher, and the United states tops with 342 thousand US$, Pakistan at the bottom with 58 thousand US $. Countries like Hungary, Spain, UK are behind India where as China, Brazil, South Korea, France, Japan, Italy, Germany are beyond. 

Publications and Patents: 

Since 2000, though India has quadrupled its scholarly output the impact remained very low, nearly 30% of the world's average. India is one of the world's leading filters of patents but registers few applications till date. 17 domestic and foreign patent applications are filed in 2013 per 1 million people, whereas South Korea filed 4,451 applications. India lacks behind and has only 2,00,000 full-time researchers i.e.; 1 researcher per 10,000 labour force and ranks behind Chile and Kenya. This is because 40% of Indian researchers settle in abroad for higher positions.

Reference: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v521/n7551/

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Deepak Kumar Bandari,

Pharm.D Intern,

Vaagdevi College of Pharmacy - India

Elsevier Student Ambassador - South Asia

Dream to Foreign Land : A Glimpse on Present situation

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Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D) is the most sophisticated and professional doctoral degree in pharmacy and pharmacists ranks as the most trusted healthcare professionals in today's society. This clinical degree has a main objective of serving the healthcare system for better patient care through evidence based medicine. Pharmacists play a major role in health promotion and manages the resources of health care system in co-operation with the health care team and delivers the health and family welfare services in existing socio-economic, political and cultural environment.

It will be a dream for any pharmacy student to practice in highly developed countries like US, Canada, UK and Australia etc.; as they stands out in providing dignity and an handsome remuneration to the services offered. Pharmacy services are offered in diverse areas like Clinical pharmacy practice, Community pharmacy, Geriatric pharmacy, Governmental agencies, Home health care, Hospital pharmacy, Managed care, Pharmacoeconomics, Pharmacy education, Consulting, legal practice and drug information. Continuously, as the responsibility of the pharmacists is increasing this led to the new era of pharmacy profession, where the pharmacists are involved in rendering their services through various specializations like (only 20 are listed below out of 114)

1. Allergy and Immunology
2. Ambulatory medicine
3. Anaesthetics
4. Child and adolescent psychiatry and psychotherapy
5. Critical care medicine
6. Emergency and family Medicine
7. Health informatics
8. Interventional cardiology
9. Nephrology
10. Nuclear medicine
11. Occupational health
12. Oncology
13. Pediatrics
14. Physical and rehabilitation medicine
15. Public Health
16. Preventive medicine
17. Palliative care
18. Pharmacoeconomics
19. Pharmacogenomics
20. Pharmacy education and Health promotion

However, getting through the registration process is a laborious which requires tremendous efforts, sound knowledge on academics, relevant skills and financial support. The registration process is different for different countries.

Short view of registration process for US:

In case of United States, once the candidate meets the eligibility criteria required by the NABP, he/she needs to select a state where he/she desires to a registered pharmacist; and an application is to be drafted for FPGEE, which has to be qualified for FPGEC certification program. After application of FPGEE and Educational Credential Evaluation (ECE) evaluation is done, the NABP board scrutinizes all the documents submitted earlier and makes a decision in writing regarding the status of application. Then the candidate has to apply for the visa, followed by examination.  It takes 2-3 months for the results and the internship of at least 1500 hours is required. This also requires a Test of Spoken English (TSE) depending on the state. Then the NABP in accordance with the state pharmacy board issues an authorization to take NAPLEX.

Below is the list of licensure examinations for different countries in a quick view.

List of Abbreviations

Glimpse at present situation: It is known from private sources that 67 Pharm.D students from India have registered for FPGEE examination in the United States till now, out of which very few of them got qualified and none of them cleared NAPLEX to become a registered pharmacist. This may be due to the Pharm.D educational standards in India as they do not meet the standards of foreign pharmacy education. It is evident that many Indian M.Pharmacy and Ph.D candidates had cleared NAPLEX earlier and now practicing in respective countries. But the Pharm.D status always remained exclaimed.

" Right now the US is producing enough number of pharmacists to meet their healthcare demands in hospitals and retail pharmacies. There is unemployment for American Pharm D holders in the states of New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Job opportunities are not that good in other 45 states also. after undergoing all the laborious process mentioned above  then the candidate will receive the pharmacist license. Then, it is his turn to compete in the open market to get jobs. It is too difficult to get jobs in hospitals in the US because they prefer their own graduates who are properly trained for therapeutic drug monitoring. Not only from India, but also from other countries the pharmacists come to US in search of jobs and compete with the local graduates. There are very few clinical and hospital pharmacy jobs for Indian Pharm D graduates in the US hospitals in the next 20 years,” - Says an Intern from American Speciality  Pharmacy, Texas, USA.

Reference:http://www.jyoungpharm.org/article/718

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Deepak Kumar Bandari,

Pharm.D Intern,

Vaagdevi College of Pharmacy - India

Elsevier Student Ambassador - South Asia

Software to Analyze the Outcomes of Cancer Therapy : An Indian Innovation

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Facts about Cancer:

Cancer is one of the most leading causes of mortality in the world. There are more than 100 types of cancers affecting any part of the human body. According to the statistics of World Health Organization (WHO) in 2012, About 8.2 million people worldwide died from cancer, where 60% of world’s total new annual cases occur in Africa, Asia and Central and South America. About 70% of all cancer deaths occur in low and middle income countries. 

Worldwide, the 5 most common types of cancer that kill men are lung, stomach, liver, colorectal and oesophageal cancer; whereas in case of women it is breast, lung, stomach, colorectal and cervical. In many developing countries, cervical cancer is the most common cancer. Cancers of major public health relevance such as breast, cervical and colorectal cancer can be cured if detected early and treated adequately. More than 30% of cancer could be prevented, mainly by not using tobacco, having a healthy diet, being physically active and moderating the use of alcohol. In developing countries up to 20% of cancer deaths could be prevented by immunization against the infection of HBV and HPV.

Complexity of cancer treatment:

Treatment of cancer is very complex, and the outcome is dependant on various factors like ethnic background, socioeconomic, nutritional status and genetic variations. In developing countries like India, two other compounding factors are widely varying levels of awareness of cancer amongst our people, and economic constraints. Moreover, all these days we were dependent on the western guidelines and their protocols to treat the patients, where research is carried out in their population. All these highlights the urgency and need to collect data, conduct research and establish standard guidelines from the very own population, which is not an easy task. Collecting the data in a systematic and consistent way will help all those involved in care of cancer patients, to derive accurate and objective information on treatments that will yield optimal outcomes in the population, while at the same time being cost effective. 

From the literature available so far, it is a well known fact that Indian patients responds differently to different therapeutic regimens compared to rest of the world.

In this case it is important to track the outcomes of the therapeutic plans individually and carry out the clinical trials in India. 

All about Indian Innovation:

A software program named ‘OncoCollect’ was developed by Prof. Dr.Ramesh Nimmagadda, the Director of Medical Oncology at Apollo Hospitals, Chennai which is used to analyze the patient's data to show treatment outcomes. This software is equipped with drugs used in cancer treatment, and doctors can choose the regimen they are using. All other forms of cancer treatment are also covered in the software including surgery and radiotherapy which is flexible for all types of cancers and lymphomas except blood cancer. The physicians could then record responses seen, toxicity/side effects, survival periods and relapses.

This innovation is to gather as much data on as many cancers from as many patients as possible. “Apart from showing us treatment outcomes, it will also show us economic costs - both costs borne by the patient, as well as costs and efficacies of certain drugs used". The training on this software is freely provided by Dr. Ramesh Nimmagadda cancer foundation.

"Congratulations to the brilliant brains of India".

I'm thankful to Miss. Saila sri, Researcher - Medtrack, Cognizant Technology Solutions for sharing this information with us.

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Deepak Kumar Bandari,

Pharm.D Intern,

Vaagdevi College of Pharmacy - India

Elsevier Student Ambassador - South Asia