Need strong medical research in India: Dr Fiona Godlee
Though India provides some of the best in the world medical care, research in India needs development.
Published: 01st December 2018 01:31 AM |
Representational Image. ( Photo| EPS)
By Express News Service
CHENNAI: Dr Fiona Godlee, Editor-In-Chief, the British Medical Journal, who is in the City for the 5th Edition of the British Medical Journal South Asia Awards 2018 to be held on Saturday here, spoke to reporters on Friday, about the medical research in India.
How to you see India coming up in the research sector?
Though India provides some of the best in the world medical care, research in India needs development. It has a long way to go probably because it has not been introduced to strong culture of research and also may be funding is not there.
Support and training of young researchers is also lacking.
There are so many good people working in India, and BMJ hopes to keep in touch with them, so we can support Indian researchers to do very good and relevant research.
We need strong research in India because it has a huge population and many health challenges, unique to the region. So, it needs relevant, region-specific clinical research.
BMJ would like to contribute to help India built great capacity for research. It has the potential to do research and is a good home for clinical research.
Do pharma industries have influence over most of the researches?
Though there are no figures on funded studies by the pharmas available at the moment, yes, pharma industries influence in clinical research and others and the influence is enormous globally. Most of the time, the result of the research would be the outcome of the sponsors.
They favour the sponsor’s products. The right focus of any studies should be on the prevention and teaching of health. Prevention should not be medicalised. Medical journals have a responsibility to ask for scientific based proof for the results. Researches should help bring in policy changes and make the government bring in guidelines on the food habits of the people or so.
Most of the studies in India are focussed on diabetes. Do you think the researchers are exaggerating the figures?
Not exaggerating, but diabetes is an epidemic. In UK, 6 per cent of the population is diabetic, and the figures are expected to go to 20 per cent by 2030. I am sure, India, considering the population, would have more percentage of people with diabetes. But, this should be tackled with educating the people about nutritious food habits and lifestyle changes, rather than looking for medication.
Again, any organisation funded for these studies would promote their products like Insulin and their food and other products.
Tax on sugar, better guidelines on food policies, government policies and carbohydrates intake would help to change these figures.
Though India provides some of the best in the world medical care, research in India needs development.
Published: 01st December 2018 01:31 AM |
Representational Image. ( Photo| EPS)
By Express News Service
CHENNAI: Dr Fiona Godlee, Editor-In-Chief, the British Medical Journal, who is in the City for the 5th Edition of the British Medical Journal South Asia Awards 2018 to be held on Saturday here, spoke to reporters on Friday, about the medical research in India.
How to you see India coming up in the research sector?
Though India provides some of the best in the world medical care, research in India needs development. It has a long way to go probably because it has not been introduced to strong culture of research and also may be funding is not there.
Support and training of young researchers is also lacking.
There are so many good people working in India, and BMJ hopes to keep in touch with them, so we can support Indian researchers to do very good and relevant research.
We need strong research in India because it has a huge population and many health challenges, unique to the region. So, it needs relevant, region-specific clinical research.
BMJ would like to contribute to help India built great capacity for research. It has the potential to do research and is a good home for clinical research.
Do pharma industries have influence over most of the researches?
Though there are no figures on funded studies by the pharmas available at the moment, yes, pharma industries influence in clinical research and others and the influence is enormous globally. Most of the time, the result of the research would be the outcome of the sponsors.
They favour the sponsor’s products. The right focus of any studies should be on the prevention and teaching of health. Prevention should not be medicalised. Medical journals have a responsibility to ask for scientific based proof for the results. Researches should help bring in policy changes and make the government bring in guidelines on the food habits of the people or so.
Most of the studies in India are focussed on diabetes. Do you think the researchers are exaggerating the figures?
Not exaggerating, but diabetes is an epidemic. In UK, 6 per cent of the population is diabetic, and the figures are expected to go to 20 per cent by 2030. I am sure, India, considering the population, would have more percentage of people with diabetes. But, this should be tackled with educating the people about nutritious food habits and lifestyle changes, rather than looking for medication.
Again, any organisation funded for these studies would promote their products like Insulin and their food and other products.
Tax on sugar, better guidelines on food policies, government policies and carbohydrates intake would help to change these figures.
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