New Delhi Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) plans to set up advanced research centers for Bone Marrow Transplantation (BMT) in government hospitals across India. The apex medical research institute is of the view that BMT is a high-end procedure for critically ill patients and most of the centers are in the private sector, thus limiting access to treatment for the poor.
ICMR plans to support medical institutions in setting up state-of-the-art infrastructure across India to make BMT safe and accessible.
BMT is an advanced therapeutic intervention for several malignant and non-malignant conditions such as hemoglobinopathy, hematological cancer, aplastic anemia and primary immunodeficiency disorders.
“BMT procedures are available in the private sector at very high cost and thus poor and needy people cannot afford it. The need of the hour is to make BMT services easily available, accessible and affordable to the diseased and vulnerable population of the country, create an infrastructure and research center to improve the outcomes of this treatment protocol,” said Dr Lokesh Sharma, a Scientist said in ICMR. The research institute is also working to establish an institutional framework for hematopoietic cell transplantation. The BMT services will be carried out in compliance with the National Guidelines for Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation, 2021. Under this research model, ICMR will set up multiple centers that will work to provide safe and affordable BMT procedures in all six regions of India including North, South, East, West, North-East and Central. The centers will also help in analyzing the disease burden in a particular area.
Government medical institutions having infrastructure and skilled manpower with prior experience in performing bone marrow transplants can send their applications to ICMR.
“The goal is to contribute to the development of BMT, improve access to this established standard of care, and improve its outcome,” Sharma said. Research will be conducted for prevention of infectious complications, management of chronic issues, addressing immunological issues. based therapy and disease recurrence among others.