E-Paper
Ludhiana: Health dept launches Breast Cancer Early Detection project
To ensure timely detection, initiation of treatment, and strong referral pathways, the health department launched a Breast Cancer Early Detection project in Ludhiana on Friday
To ensure timely detection, initiation of treatment, and strong referral pathways, the health department launched a Breast Cancer Early Detection project in Ludhiana on Friday. On the directions of civil surgeon Dr Hitinder Kaur, the project has commenced under district family welfare officer Dr Harpreet Singh.
Divulging more details, the civil surgeon said this public-private partnership named “Punjab Breast Cancer AI-Digital Project”, also known as ‘Pink Project’, will support numerous health centers through technology-enabled digital live patient tracking support.
“This new public-private partnership is an important step in the fight against cancer,” she added.
‘Project will reduce treatment cost’
Dr Hitinder said the scientific data obtained with the help of this project will further assist in policy planning and mapping of breast cancer incidence. Early detection of cancer will result in lower treatment costs compared to patients diagnosed at later stages, she added.
Outlining the key benefits of the new detection test, she said it is a new technology for breast cancer detection, called Thermalitics, which uses artificial intelligence with a thermal sensing device for reliable, early, and accurate breast cancer diagnosis. This innovative method developed by Nirmai has been granted ten US patents and is completely safe for the patient.
Dr Harpreet said, “This partnership will strengthen the efforts already underway in the National Health Mission under the NPCDCS (National Program for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases, and Stroke) programme.
Dr Harpreet said early detection of breast cancer is very important to reduce the mortality rate and provide appropriate treatment options. The partnership of the Punjab health department with Nirmai will take a multidisciplinary approach within the field of cancer, which will not only make breast cancer treatment more effective, but also provide concrete medical solutions for cancer treatment, he added.
Breast cancer is the most serious cancer, resulting in the death of more than 90,000 Indian women every year. Nirmai Thermalitics is a portable test that can be performed by a village health worker to identify women with suspected breast cancer.
