Dr KK Aggarwal
India may soon have an essential list of diagnostic tests along the lines
of National List of Essential Medicines (NLEM).
According to the WHO, “essential medicines are those that satisfy the
priority health care needs of the population and are intended to be available
within the context of functioning health systems at all times in adequate
amounts, in the appropriate dosage forms, with assured quality, and at a price
the individual and the community can afford.”
Having a list of essential medicines helps to monitor the costs of
medicines so that the medicines included are available at affordable costs.
Appropriate use of medicines listed in the NLEM promotes rational use of drugs.
And, rational use of antimicrobial drugs reduces development of antimicrobial
resistance.
Similarly, a national list of essential diagnostic tests would have several
advantages such as facilitating therapeutic decisions resulting in improved
patient care, affordable tests, reduced out of pocket expenditure and also
promote rational use of essential medicines. It would also mean better
regulation of diagnostic tests. These tests may be available as either point of
care tests or in laboratories.
Ideally speaking, there should be no discrimination of diagnostic tests as
essential or non-essential. All tests are essential.
But, if there is to be an essential list of diagnostic tests, then the
first priority should be on diagnostic tests for antimicrobial resistance
(AMR), a subject of immense public health concern. An essential list of
diagnostic tests can be a strategy to check the rising prevalence of AMR. Rapid
and correct diagnosis of infections would permit right and more targeted
treatment thereby reducing overuse and/or inappropriate use of antimicrobials
and in turn, the risk of antimicrobial resistance. This list should be
introduced immediately and the rest can wait the bureaucracy. AMR
tests should either be made free of cost or their subsidized costs should
be uniform across the country.
Dr KK Aggarwal
Padma Shri Awardee
Vice President CMAAO
Group Editor-in-Chief IJCP Publications
Vice President CMAAO
Group Editor-in-Chief IJCP Publications
President Heart Care
Foundation of India
Immediate Past
National President IMA
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