Context:

• In collaboration with the health ministry, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences and 15 institutions of national importance, the ICMR will pool a national clinical registry covering all COVID-19 patients, who have been hospitalised.
• The institutions will mentor other clinical organisations involved in the response to the pandemic, to widen the footprint of the database.

About Infodemic:

• Overabundance of the information.
• Difficult to distinguish between trustworthy news and fake news.

Need of the unified database:

• A unified database is essential for tracking patients over the long term, for their own safety, to propagate successful interventions globally.
• To examine how the virus may interact with other factors, like genetic makeup, comorbidities, location, climate and diet.
• In the short term, a database would help to answer critical questions:
  • What is the phone number of the nearest plasma donor?
  • Which patients can be helped immediately by a newly discovered intervention?

Need of standard Information:

• Issue of standardized information availability to the health professionals.
• The long-term effects of the novel coronavirus remain in the realm of conjecture.
• Will provide help in containing the Infodemic.

Reference: https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/covid-19-coronavirus-pandemic-aiims-patient-database-icmr-6531581/

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