Health Analytics India - An Initiative By dataLEADS
India has disproportionately high mortality and disease burden due to air pollution according to a recent Lancet report. Out of total deaths attributable to air pollution, 51·4% were in people younger than 70 years. This study provides a comprehensive assessment of the exposure to air pollution and its impact on deaths, disease burden, and life expectancy in every state of India. The study clearly highlights that one out of every eight deaths in India in 2017 could be attributed to air pollution.
DATA
INSIGHT
ANALYSIS
VISUALIZATION
By : Jisha Krishnan
Ayushman Bharat is a good start for a country where 62.58 per cent of the population has to foot their own healthcare expenses.
By : Rohan Gupta
In India, prohibitive cost of treatment and inadequate access to doctors add to the burden of cancer deaths in India.
By : Nabeela Inayati
Oxytocin is a life-saving drug. Yet, government announced restrictions on manufacturing and supply of oxytocin by private companies.
By : Dinesh C Sharma
A group of Indian researchers has sought to apply Big Data analytics to hunt for early signatures of the Alzheimer’s.
By : Indrajit Gupta
Global investigation by International Consortium of Investigative Journalists exposed faults in safety standards of medical devices...
By : Health Analytis India
In an exclusive interview, 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 protocols for cancer treatment. It is expected to be of significance as treatment protocols could be developed based on accurate calculations, thus avoiding the preventable and uncomfortable side-effects of cancer treatment, researchers said.
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.
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.
Cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. In India, death rate due to cancer is rapidly rising. According to the government data, India had 15 lakh cancer patients in 2017 and this number is expected to increase. Rate of mortality is alarming, it is India's second most common cause of death after heart disease. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are the worst sufferers. Cervical cancer and breast cancer are the biggest killers among Indian women.
As per ICMR data, every year there are 11 lakh new cancer cases in India and five lakh cancer deaths. Most of the deaths happen due to shortage of doctors and lack of diagnostic devices. Cancer deaths are increasing but there are five states with not even a single radiotherapy centre. Even some of the big states like Chattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh have only one radiotherapy centre. The severe shortage of such facilities is a major handicap for cancer treatment.
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