Mumbai children with cancer to get e-assistance at low rates at government clinics

The move was made to keep up with the goal of making cancer care available to all Indians irrespective of location or affordability.

The Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) and Navya, the expert online cancer assistance system, has announced subsidised expert opinions for paediatric patients in government hospitals on February 15, International Childhood Cancer Day.

The expert opinion will work as a second opinion service and guidance factor for patients and their families to take a well informed decision in terms of treatment.(HT File/Representational Image)

The initiative will help children belonging to families with annual income of less than 2.5lakh and under cancer treatment at government hospitals, under National Cancer Grid, to avail expert opinion online, at the cost of Rs1500.

The move was made to keep up with the goal of making cancer care available to all Indians irrespective of location or affordability. Doctors from TMC said that they reviewed the impact of their online expert opinion service, made available through Navya in helping paediatric, adolescent and young adult patients and took the decision.

“Recent studies presented at American Society of Clinical Oncology and Global Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Congress, Atlanta suggested that our online expert opinion system has gained significance amongst patients and doctors alike. The studies show that 78% of all cases and 73.4% of paediatric and young adult cases, the final treatment administered locally was the same as the online recommendation from the expert opinion service,” said Dr Tushar Vora, professor of paediatric oncology at TMC.

The expert opinion works as a second opinion service and guidance factor for patients and their families to take a well informed decision in terms of treatment.

“We often see cases where parents bring their children to TMC after having received prior treatments that lacked quality. Every parent may not have access to a specialised paediatric oncologist in far flung areas, but the online service will empower them to avail expert opinion without boundaries,” said Dr Shripad banavali, HOD, Medical Oncology and Pediatric Oncology at TMC.