The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Tuesday released standard treatment guidelines for 51 common conditions across 11 specialties to help doctors, especially in rural areas, in identifying, treating or referring patients in time for better treatment outcomes.
The move is a part of the top biomedical research regulator’s efforts to standardise treatment processes across the country. However, the guidelines, which have been prepared by national experts in various fields of medicine with feasibility considerations for various levels of the health care system in the country, are advisory.
Problems associated with irrational use of medicines, over and under-diagnosis, and poor referral practices can be addressed appropriately with the help of such standard treatment workflow, according to ICMR experts. The specialities that have been covered in the current edition include dermatology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, general surgery, infertility, neonatology, oncology, ophthalmology, orthopaedics, and paediatric surgery.
This is the third such instalment in the series that ICMR has released – volume-I with 53 conditions and volume-II with 18 conditions were released in 2019 and 2022 respectively. The one released this year in March pertained to tuberculosis treatment workflow.
“…to empower the primary, secondary, and tertiary health care physicians/surgeons towards achieving the overall goal of universal health coverage with disease management protocols and pre-defined referral mechanisms by decoding complex guidelines,” said experts who drafted the guidelines in the document.
{{/usCountry}}“…to empower the primary, secondary, and tertiary health care physicians/surgeons towards achieving the overall goal of universal health coverage with disease management protocols and pre-defined referral mechanisms by decoding complex guidelines,” said experts who drafted the guidelines in the document.
{{/usCountry}}With growing new scientific evidence and rising healthcare costs, healthcare providers regularly require simple standard treatment guidelines, workflows and reference manuals
“The burden of delivering healthcare at the peripheries predominantly rests on primary care physicians who have been doing a phenomenal job. The Standard Treatment Workflows will help these physicians to remain updated and will provide broad guidance on how to manage common conditions,” said Balram Bhargava, secretary, department of health research and director-general, ICMR.
The vice-chairman of the advisory committee, Dr Nikhil Tandon, head of the endocrinology department, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, said, “There has to be some core principle of disease management, which means certain minimum standards need to be followed. However, there also will have to be certain discretionary measures applied on the ground as in medicine things cannot be straight-jacketed. Also, since the guidelines are advisory, there has to be a way to generate enough awareness for people to adopt it on the ground.”
Experts said it will help in the long run
“Especially in tier 2-3 cities, and rural areas, where access to specialists is not that easy, these guidelines should be of help,” said Dr Deepali Bhardwaj, senior Delhi-based dermatologist. World Health Organisation (WHO) also collaborated in the effort.
“WHO… will help in the dissemination of this important work across various countries and different platforms. This will also include the utilisation of WHO’s field teams in the training of healthcare workers,” said Payden, deputy representative of the WHO country office in India.