Health Analytics India - An Initiative By dataLEADS
The Union minister of environment, forest and climate change, Dr Harsh Vardhan, said in Parliament that there is no conclusive data available in the country to establish direct correlation of death/diseases exclusively to air pollution. However, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)released a study last month. The report of the study says that "one out of every eight deaths in India in 2017 could be attributed to air pollution". In Delhi, alone 51% of total deaths are attributable to air pollution according to the report.
To understand a countries improvement on health, it is imperative to know national levels of healthcare access and service delivery. Global Burden of Diseases study was used to understand healthcare access and delivery of 195 countries and territories, as well as sub-national locations in seven countries, from 1990 to 2016. India has improved its ranking on a global healthcare access and quality index from 28.0 in 2000 to 47.6 in 2016 but ranks lower than neighbouring Bangladesh and other Asian countries.
DATA
INSIGHT
ANALYSIS
VISUALIZATION
By : Nabeela Inayati
Oxytocin is a life-saving drug but government announced restrictions on manufacturing and supply of oxytocin by private companies due to its misuse by the cattle industry.
By : Dinesh C Sharma
Researchers at the National Brain Research Centre have developed a Big Data Analytics framework to look for early diagnostic biomarkers of the Alzheimer’s disease.
By : Indrajit Gupta
Global investigation by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists exposed faults in safety standards of medical devices, poor testing and the patchy regulation.
By : Health Analytis India
Dr Aman Iqbal talks about his passion for data and AI and why he returned India to start an AI-driven healthcare company.
By : Monika Kundu Srivastava
Scientists at the Pune-based National Chemical Laboratory of CSIR have developed a mathematical model that promises to deliver better...
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By : Kollegala Sharma
Cancer drugs are generally toxic and result in serious side effects in patients. A group of Indian researchers have now ...
By : Nabeela Khan Inayati
The WHO calls the existence of substandard and falsified medicine an unacceptable risk to public health. Yet every region of the world is flooded with fake medicines. In India, particularly, a flood of fraudulent medicines is threatening the health of tens of thousands of people and a majority of people don’t even know that counterfeit drugs exist.
By : Monika Kundu Srivastava
Researchers have identified exposure to cadmium as a reason for Salmonella becoming resistant to antibiotics and have deciphered how cadmium affects the bacteria. Results of the study, published in Scientific Reports, indicate that antibiotics that could treat a severe infection are becoming less effective and those which could only treat mild infections are becoming ineffective.
By : Raghu Murtugudde
The ill-effects of air pollution on human health have been reported extensively. Some estimates attribute nearly one fourth of all deaths in India to air pollution, particularly exposure to particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns in size or PM 2.5. A new study published in The Lancet Planetary Health has reported that PM2.5 also impacts disease burden of diabetes.
Import alerts by The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) are on the rise from 41 drug companies in 2015 to 55 till 2019. USFDA issues a warning letter which restricts the ability of that manufacturing unit to supply drugs to the US. In Indian scenario, the letters have been issued on sloppy record keeping and fudging of data including quality control.
Out of pocket (OOP) medical expenses make up about 67% of all healthcare costs in India according to NHA estimates and forms a major chunk in overall healthcare expenditure. High OOP for health brings a financial burden on families and discourage people from seeking timely care. Therefore, government needs to pump in more funds to address healthcare needs of people.
Kala-Azar has been endemic to Bihar since years. But recent data shows huge improvements and a steady decline of 36% in Bihar. But this year Jharkhand records 7 per cent increase in Kala-Azar cases highlighting that the elimination of disease is becoming a difficult task for India. 45 % of world’s Kala-Azar cases were reported from India and India has already missed the Kala Azar elimination deadline.
Cholera was much wiped out at a high rate in India but it is raising its head again. The major reason remains contaminated water and poor sanitation. Since, only 28% of households use piped water, there are all the more reasons for cholera to stretch across the length and breadth of India. Five Indian states including national capital carry 75% burden of the disease in India.
Health Analytics India (HAI) is a data journalism initiative dedicated to provide the most illuminating reporting on healthcare. We’re not going to blindly accept the data, but we’re not going to be blind to it either.
Syed Nazakat, Editor-in-Chief of Health Analytics India
Journalists reporting on traumatic situations and disease such as Ebola, cholera, or HIV-Aids need to develop specialist skills for such work. Their tool kit needs to include techniques such as empathy, less talking - more listening, and a critical need to get the facts right.
Cait McMahon PhD, is a managing director of Dart Centre Asia Pacific, with headquarters in Melbourne, Australia
When I was the Director General of CSIR, we had started a public–private partnership called New Millennium Indian Technology Leadership Initiative, which was directed exclusively towards affordable excellence. That was a game-changer. We need to launch national grand challenges for vaccines to therapeutics to tablets. We did make the US$ 35 Akash tablet, after all.
R.A. Mashelkar, noted Scientist and innovator who holds a long list of directorships, degrees and awards, all focused on advancing science and inclusive innovation in India.
Telling the Ebola story with data is a challenging task, how to paint a picture of numbers that inform about the seriousness while neither underplaying [and] nor being alarmist? There has been problematic data reporting…but there’s been solid data journalism too.
Sharron Lovell is a multimedia storyteller and educator. She is based in Beijing and lectures on multimedia journalism.
The essential drug list becomes more relevant when the drug market is flooded with many nonessential, irrational drugs for which safer, equally effective & cheaper essential alternatives exist.
Dr Mira Shiva, MD, is one of the leading voices of public health in India and coordinator at the Initiative for Health & Equity in Society.
We crunch the numbers, investigate the issues behind the numbers and turn them into fact and figure based stories that matter to the people.Our aim is to make Health Analytics India a single-point source of healthcare data and information in India.
Nabeela Khan Inayati, Assistant Editor, Health Analytics India
"If we look at the cancer crisis closely, there is nothing like a new pattern of cancer, but the type of cancer which is predominant in an area keeps changing. It changes every ten years. For instance, earlier, the common cancer in America was tobacco related but that has changed now because the awareness has increased."
Dr. Sameer Kaul, surgical oncologist & Founder, President of Breast Cancer Patients Benefit Foundation.
"India provides low cost drugs not only to its citizens but also to most developing countries. Hence, the measures to control prices of drugs must be matched with those to safeguard our sovereignty in drug manufacturing, whether by public or private companies. It is this that will finally result in availability of drugs at affordable prices and will ensure that we move forward towards Universal Health Assurance."
Mirai Chatterjee, Director, Social Security Team, Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA).
It’s commendable that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is making efforts to be more data-driven by providing district-level estimates for the first time with NFHS-4, there are still loopholes that need to be plugged.
Jisha Krishnan, Journalist
