Indian Population Archives - InnoHEALTH magazine

India’s 1.4 Billion Health Data Mavericks:Awakening Awareness in a Nation that Takes it Easy

InnoHEALTH magazine digital team — Thu, 19 Oct 2023 06:38:56 +0000

Often, we place our trust in healthcare providers, assuming they will protect this sensitive information. But is trust alone sufficient in these turbulent digital waters?

In the rapidly evolving landscape of digitalization, where every online interaction leaves behind a trail of personal information, we find ourselves at a pivotal juncture. Our personal data, a highly sought-after asset in the digital era, is constantly in demand by various entities. However, within this frenzy of data collection lies an exceptionally intimate and personal treasure trove – our health data. As we embark on an innovative journey through India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023, it becomes imperative for healthcare professionals to comprehend how this legislation may safeguard our most invaluable possession: our health data.

The Paradigm Shift:

Close your eyes for a moment and envision this scenario: you visit a doctor for a routine check-up, sharing your medical history, undergoing tests, and receiving a diagnosis. But have you ever paused to ponder what happens to that information once you leave the doctor’s office? In many instances, it transforms into a digital fragment, residing in a vast repository accessible to various parties. It could be used for research, become a tool for insurance companies, or, in the worst-case scenario, fall prey to malicious data breaches. Often, we place our trust in healthcare providers, assuming they will protect this sensitive information. But is trust alone sufficient in these turbulent digital waters?

Another distressing facet of this clandestine industry is the unauthorized access to health data by unscrupulous actors.

Data Protection Bill 2023: A Beacon of Hope:

The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 in India emerges as a beacon of hope in our mission to preserve the sanctity of our health data. Let’s embark on an enlightening journey to explore some of its key provisions and their potential impact on our lives:

Personal Consent: This legislation stipulates that personal data can only be processed for lawful purposes with explicit consent from the individual. In simpler terms, your health data remains concealed from prying eyes unless you choose to disclose it. This provision empowers you with newfound control over your data.
Data Accuracy and Security: The Bill places the responsibility on data fiduciaries, those who collect and process data, to maintain the integrity of the data, ensuring its security and deletion once its intended purpose is fulfilled. It establishes a fundamental principle: the safeguarding of your health data is paramount.
Individual Rights: Within this framework, you are granted the right to access information about how your data is being processed, the ability to correct inaccuracies, and a mechanism to address concerns. This provision fosters a culture of transparency and accountability, putting you in charge of your health data’s fate.
Cross-Border Data Transfer: In a world where data flows across borders rapidly, the Bill introduces regulations governing the transfer of personal data beyond India’s shores. This safeguard ensures that your health data doesn’t inadvertently end up in countries lacking robust data protection standards.
Data Breach Reporting: In the unfortunate event of a data breach that could jeopardize your well-being, data fiduciaries are obligated to report it to the Data Protection Board of India and directly inform you. This measure ensures timely awareness and empowers you to take corrective action.

Why Does it Matter?

Our health data, a digital reflection of our most private and intimate aspects, holds the potential to revolutionize medical research, enable personalized therapy, and potentially save lives. However, this promise is not without risks, especially in a society where data has become a valuable commodity. The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 acts as a formidable deterrent against the latent threats of health data misuse and breaches.

Unmasking the Shadows: Crimes in Health Data Industry in India

A formidable industry has thrived in the shadows of the digital world, operating away from the public eye. This shadowy domain revolves around the illicit exchange and exploitation of health data, a sector worth billions of dollars. It thrives on the unauthorized acquisition of individuals’ medical information, often without their knowledge.

For too long, India’s health data industry has functioned as a clandestine network. It’s a hidden realm where people’s private lives, medical conditions, treatments, and vulnerabilities are commodified and auctioned off to the highest bidder. This profession is rife with a range of undisclosed crimes, including data theft, sales, unauthorized access, and extortion.

One glaring example of these crimes involves the widespread sale of health data to insurance companies. Imagine a scenario where an individual, dealing with a severe illness, confides in their healthcare provider. Little do they know that this information could end up in the hands of insurance companies looking to deny coverage or inflate premiums. This surreptitious trade in health data not only jeopardizes individuals’ financial well-being but also erodes the trust placed in the healthcare system.

Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 has the potential to shine a spotlight on this clandestine business, exposing its wrongdoings and guaranteeing the utmost respect and protection for individuals’ health data.

Another distressing facet of this clandestine industry is the unauthorized access to health data by unscrupulous actors. Medical records, often stored in digital repositories, become prime targets for hackers seeking to exploit vulnerabilities in security systems. These cybercriminals gain access to sensitive patient information, which can be used for identity theft, fraudulent insurance claims, or even sold on the black market.

Furthermore, healthcare institutions themselves are not immune to these crimes. Incidents of data breaches within hospitals and clinics are alarmingly common. Patient records, filled with personal identifiers, become the currency of the illicit health data trade. In many cases, these breaches go undisclosed, leaving patients unaware of the compromise of their personal information.

In a world where our health data is digitized and shared, the need for robust data protection measures becomes undeniable. This is precisely where the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 in India steps in as an agent of change. It has the potential to expose the shadowy actors in the health data industry, bringing them to justice and ensuring the privacy and dignity of individuals’ health data.

One of the key provisions of the Bill is its stringent stance on data breaches. It mandates that data fiduciaries promptly report breaches to the Data Protection Board of India and the affected individuals. This requirement ensures transparency and accountability in the event of a breach, making it significantly more challenging for wrongdoers to operate covertly.

In conclusion, India’s health data industry, shrouded in secrecy, has thrived for too long on the vulnerabilities of individuals and the absence of robust data protection measures. The Digital Personal Data Protection Bill 2023 has the potential to shine a spotlight on this clandestine business, exposing its wrongdoings and guaranteeing the utmost respect and protection for individuals’ health data. As custodians of health information, healthcare professionals must play a pivotal role in advocating for data privacy and urging the implementation of the Bill’s requirements. In doing so, we can pave the way for India’s genuine progress, where our most personal data is safeguarded, and the shadows of the health data industry are dispelled by the light of transparency and accountability. This is how India can truly thrive as a developed nation while preserving the well-being and dignity of its people.

“Composed by: Sagar Pandya is a highly accomplished professional with a Master’s degree in Software Technology and a decade long experience in the software industry, working with renowned multinational corporations, gaining expertise in latest technologies. He is also an author, known for his book “Tales of the Jungle: Fables of Indian Animals and Morals.”

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Nasal Spray for Treating Depression

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Wed, 30 Oct 2019 05:54:07 +0000

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved ketamine on 6th March 2019 —a ketamine like nasal spray, which is to be taken in conjunction with one of the commonly used oral antidepressants —to help in treating a form of depression called treatment resistant depression (TRD). TRD is a condition that typically affects people suffering from major depressive disorders (MDD). The key feature of TRD is the inability to respond adequately to at least two antidepressant treatments.

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The drug is administered via the nasal route, where it is absorbed by the nasal lining into the bloodstream. Part of the promise that ketamine holds, lies in the role it plays in swiftly alleviating depressive symptoms. Esketamine is reported to show statistically significant effects as quickly as a matter of days, as against the traditional antidepressant treatments that can take several weeks before showing any results.

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“There has been a long-standing need for additional effective treatments for treatment-resistant depression, a serious and life-threatening condition,” said Tiffany Farchione, MD, Acting Director of the Division of Psychiatry Products in the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, in a press release announcing its approval. Unsurprisingly, the FDA’s approval has been hailed as a landmark milestoneby its advocates.

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Given the potential risk of abuse and the risk of serious adverse outcomes, like sedation and dissociation (disconnect in a person’s thoughts, memories and a sense of identity) among others, associated with administering of the drug, the drug will only be available through a restricted distributed system. In addition, the drug will only be administered in a clinical setting where patients are required to stay back and be monitored for a few hours.

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Ketamine as a drug has been around for many years and has been used off-label to treat depression. Many psychiatrists in India provide ketamine infusion therapy, which is essentially ketamine administered intravenously, as it is felt to be beneficial during emergencies and especially in patients diagnosed with suicidal ideation.

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An average of about 4.4% of the world and 5.9% of the United States’ population, suffer from varying degrees of depression and the incidence in India is not vastly different at 4.5%. Insuch a scenario, where the incidence rates are similar, treatment options for depression available around the world are required to be made available here in India as well. It is, therefore, incumbent on all the stakeholders to deliberate the efficacy and the potential harm of the drug expeditiously, and if found suitable for the Indian population, fast track its availability.

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Despite Ketamine’s success in giving the patient a new impetus to recovery, it is important to sustain the gain. All aspects of a patient’s disease, from the physical to the psychological and from the social to the environmental need to be addressed. Ketamine is really a shift in thinking about and acting on depression, which really represents a leap in terms of new ideas for tackling the disease.

About the author

Preetam Satish is the co-founder of a health-tech company Virtual Clinic. He is also a stakeholder in Maarga Hospital, a psychiatry hospital based in Bangalore. Mr. Satish is passionate about mental health and has written an article about the new and emerging treatments available for depression. He has also written about how Ketamine is important to fast track the availability of some of these known and well-entrenched therapies to address the needs of mental health in India.

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Genetic link to heart disease in Indian population

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 08:18:07 +0000

A team of Indian researchers have discovered that carriers of a set of genetic variants in the Chromogranin A (CHGA) gene called‘CHGA promoter haplotype2’ may be at higher risk for cardiovascular and metabolic disorders. An estimated 35 to 40 percent of Indian population may carry this genetic variant.

The study is based on analysis of genomic DNA samples from over 750 individuals from Indian population. The research findings have been published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

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Though the CHGA promoter haplotypeis present in other ethnic populations, it occurs more frequently in population of South Asian ancestry. “It is a protein of neuroendocrine origin and is secreted along with hormones like catecholamines. Earlier studies had suggest edits role in regulation of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases but there was no data aboutit in South Asian population,” said Lakshmi Subramanian, first author of this paper.

“Westudied genomic DNA of Indians and discovered a specific set of changes in the CHGA genesequence called Haplotype2 which contributed to increased CHGA gene expression, and ultimately increased CHGA protein levels in plasma. When the clinical parameters of those in the study were compared, Haplotype2 carriers displayed higher levels of metabolic and cardiovascular traits like plasma glucose, blood pressure and body mass index,” explained Dr. Nitish R. Mahapatra, Professor at IIT Madras.

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However, he said, these results need further validation in animal models as well as large scale studies in individuals with metabolic syndrome. “We hope these findings would help unravel biological pathways and mechanisms underlying these complex diseases and would help in the development of therapeutic as well as preventive strategies,” said Dr. Mahapatra.

“Basic research in cardiovascular biology is in a very nascent stage in India with only a handful of researchers working in this field. This new study significantly contributes towards understanding molecular basis of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. This is a fast emerging area with tremendous therapeutic and diagnostic potential,” commented Dr Shyamal K. Goswami, a professor at School of Life Science, JNU, who is not connected with the study.

The study was led by Dr. Mahapatra in a collaborative effort with Dr. Ajit S. Mullasari at Madras Medical Mission, Chennaiand Dr. Madhu Khullar at PGIMER, Chandigarh.

(Article shared from India Science Wire)

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Digital India Healthy India

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Fri, 27 Apr 2018 06:34:46 +0000

New India, Digital India, Make India, Innovate India in making a ‘Healthy’ India

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India is a country of diversity with 1.3 billion population of which 70 per cent resides in villages and have access to 30 per cent of medical assets of the country. Poverty is a significant issue of the country, despite having one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, clocked at an economic growth of 7.6 per cent in 2015. It is estimated that 23.6 per cent of Indian population, or about 276 million people, live below $1.25 per day.

As Health is a state subject-there is lot of mismatch in states like Kerala and Punjab have best health indicators, while Uttar Pradesh is the poorest as per the NITI Aayog report. Indian government spends approx. 1.5 per cent of its GDP on health sector and mplans to make it 2.5 per cent which is much less than many developing countries while the USA has dedicated 16 per cent of its GDP. India is riddled with very basic public health issues leading to disease burden. Keeping this in mind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched six initiatives: Open Defecation free country by 2019, Swachh Bharat Mission, National Health Policy 2017, Digital India with e-health, medical device manufacturing and door-to-door screening of chronic diseases.

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The healthcare needs holistic approach which depends on multiple factors. The present government has taken many positive steps including launching of National Health Policy 2017 after the gap of 12 years. It has announced many initiatives like health insurance of people who cannot afford basic healthcare and upgrading of health infrastructure.

The regulation of medical devices have been brought out and is applicable w.e.f January 1, 2018 ending uncertainty of medical device manufacturers having global market of 220 billion US dollar. Challenges bring opportunities such as Indian healthcare market is around US$ 100 billion while it is expected to grow US$ 280 billion by 2020. The healthcare IT market is US$ one billion and is expected to grow 1.5 times by 2020. There is requirement of 7 lakh hospital beds which need investment opportunities of 25-30 billion US dollar. We need to bring innovations in hospital planning,devices, diagnostics, drugs and use of technology to reduce healthcare delivery cost and yet quality.

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We failed targets of Health for All by 2000, National Rural Health Mission, and Millennium Development Goals and now launched Universal Health Coverage; its success would depend on providing healthcare facilities and strict accountability. We need to focus on primary health care and customise our healthcare delivery system by learning from experiences of other countries.

The concept of Diagnosis Related Group (DRG) making financial package for group of diseases which is known to patients, providers and third party payors should be considered by improving deficiency found in its execution by the USA.

The various schemes of present government are appreciable but success would depend on strict monitoring, corporate hospitals have high cost and many unethical practices are reported every day in media. Public hospitals to National Rural Health Mission have not delivered as required because of corruption, lack of resources and application of management practices. The need is not old wine in new bottle but strict control in implementation of various schemes launched.

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Philips lighting research on eyesight

InnoHEALTH Magazine — Mon, 09 Apr 2018 07:06:58 +0000

Philips Lighting (Euronext Amsterdam ticker: LIGHT), the world leader lighting, has released findings that reveal that almost two third of Indians agree that poor light quality is detrimental to eyesight but just one fifth (21%) will actually take corrective measures such as buying light bulbs that are comfortable for their eyes. The survey also highlighted that for most Indians, eyecare is not treated at par with skincare and other health issues such as managing one’s weight and fitness levels.

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In Mumbai, durability of the bulb emerged as the highest priority while making purchase decision for light bulbs, with almost 47% of adults choosing it over other factors like price and eye comfort. While 49% of adults in the city agree that light quality affects eyesight, only 21% will opt for lighting that is comfortable for their eyes. The study conducted amongst 9,000 adults across twelve countries including India, also revealed uncomfortably entrenched mindsets with about half of the Indian population compromising on their eyesight by prioritising price (50%) and durability (48%) of bulbs over eye comfort, while making purchase decisions for light bulbs.

The situation is quite alarming considering the invasion of digital technology in our lives translating into longer screen exposure times, with almost 70% of Indians surveyed spending more than 6 hours a day in front of a screen and a similar number complaining of eyestrain! This also comes at a time as myopia hits record levels globally, with the World Health Organization predicting that one in two people will be short sighted by 2050, a vision emergency of sorts, in the not too distant future!

Ophthalmologists understand the gravity of the situation and are pulling out all stops to sensitise the general population to step up on their eye care quotient. They highlight a continued need to educate the public about eye care. In response to this situation the All India Ophthalmological Society has developed a number of proactive community oriented programs, guidelines and resources to enhance ophthalmic education amongst the public. The study of over 9,000 adults across twelve countries – India, China, USA, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Indonesia, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Thailand and Turkey – becomes even more relevant given the dire situation. It was commissioned to explore how quality LED lighting can help ameliorate the eye comfort problem amongst consumers. As per the findings of the study, 44% of Indians don’t visit an eye specialist on a regular basis while about three fourths on an average use weight (73%) and fitness (60%) as overall indicators of health. Clearly, eye care does not rank at par with other perceived health metrics. Quality lighting is not only related to longevity, but is also incredibly important when it comes to ensuring our eyes aren’t strained and feel comfortable. people should choose high quality lamps that are comfortable for their eyes.

PHILIPS LIGHTING RESEARCH

• While 49% adults in Mumbai agree that light quality affects their eye sight, only one in five (21%) will opt for lighting that is comfortable for their eyes

• Almost half of adults in Mumbai consider durability (47%) and price (45%) of bulbs over comfort for their eyes, while making purchase decisions

• More than half (53%) of adults in the city don’t regularly get their eyes checked; eye care does not rank at par with other perceived health metrics such as managing weight, fitness levels and skin care

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