ICMR invites expression of interest from firms for making anaemia detection device

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| Photo Credit: LAKSHMINARAYANAN E

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has invited Expression of Interest (EoI) from eligible organisations/companies/start-ups for manufacturing ‘non-invasive/ minimally invasive hemoglobinometer’. The device is intended to aid in the detection of anaemia, a key national health priority under the Anaemia Mukt Bharat (AMB) programme.

Aimed at expanding the effective screening network of anaemia among different age populations across India, the council, which is the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, said that over the past few years, several ‘Make in India’ non-invasive/ minimally invasive hemoglobinometer devices had become available. 

“However, these devices need to be validated to establish their accuracy, bias, and precision of the noninvasive point-of-care methods before their use can be recommended in the programme,’’ the ICMR said.

Explained | Why is India rethinking its anaemia policy? 

It added that in India, anaemia continues to be a major public health problem despite rigorous efforts of the government and comprehensive AMB programme, as a National Health Programme, being in operation. 

The prevalence of anaemia among six groups as per the National Family Health Survey 5 (2019-21) is 25% in men (15-49 years), 57% in women (15-49 years), 31.1% in adolescent boys (15-19 years), 59.1 % in adolescent girls, 52.2% in pregnant women (15-49 years) and 67.1% in children (6-59 months).

The council added that it is mandated to address the growing demands of scientific advances in biomedical research on the one hand and the need for finding practical solutions to the health problems of the country, on the other. 

Research priority

“Research on interventions for mitigation/detection of anaemia is therefore ICMR’s priority. Considering its national importance, the council intends to carry out a validation study of such non-invasive/ minimally invasive hemoglobinometer devices followed by health technology assessment for evaluating their suitability for the AMB programme,’’ it said.

The council has also specified its policy about data rights and noted that — data rights shall be jointly owned by ICMR and the company (engaged for production), data rights in cases where Artificial Intelligence is involved shall be dealt with separately and that the company is to ensure that data is anonymised, kept confidential and strictly abide by the provisions of the Information Technology Act, 2000 while dealing with such data.