ICMR launches Management Information System for COVID-19 testing labs

Srinagar, April 23 (GNS): Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) today launched the Management Information System (MIS) for Covid-19 testing laboratories and streamlining the supply of testing kits in the entire country.

In this regard a Dashboard Familiarization meeting was called by Additional Director General ICMR Prof. G S Toteja which was attended through video conference by OSD Health and Medical Education, Owais Ahmad, Managing Director, NHM, J&K, Bhupinder Kumar and Nodal Officer for COVID-19 testing labs, J&K, Dr. Jitendra Mehta.

HoD/Nodal officer PSM, GMC Srinagar Dr. Saleem Khan,  HoD/ Nodal officer Hospital Administration, SKIMS Soura Dr. Ghulam Hassan Yatoo, HoD Microbiology, SKIMS Soura Dr. Bashir Fomda,  HoD Microbiology, GMC Srinagar Dr. Anjum Farhana, HoD Microbiology GMC Jammu Dr. Shahshi Sudan, and Nodal Officer COVID-19 and State Surveillance Officer Jammu Dr. Deepak also participated in the meeting.

During the meeting, the ADG Prof. Toteja said that Management Information System has been designed and operationalized for recording Covid-19 testing and inventory-related information to make the system more viable and transparent.

He said that the MIS has been activated for use by all approved laboratories (Government and Private), regional and central depots, and ICMR headquarters to allow concerned parties to have visibility of the supply chain data collected.

While divulging the details, Prof. Toteja said that ICMR has now designed and launched a data visualization tool on the Tableau software and this interactive graphical dashboard offers a secure and easy means of viewing and evaluating the stock positions, stock requirements and MIS usage in a lab at state and national level.

He lauded the efforts of the concerned officials across the states and union territories on fighting with Covid-19 pandemic and said that the government is also taking productive steps to ensure that more and more tests are done each passing day.

The ICMR Additional Director General said that so far 300 labs both government-run and private have been pressed into service and more is being done on expanding the network of labs.

During the meeting, Dr. Jitendra Mehta from J&K complimented the ICMR for setting up the portal which he said is a good initiative and the single point of contact for both ICMR and states. This, he said, shall avoid many confusions of inventory management for the smooth functioning of COVID -19 testing labs.

Later, a presentation was also made by ICMR to familiarize the officials from various states and union territories regarding the facilitation, operationalization, and use of the dynamic Dashboard. The running of the portal will now have a unique State account creation- Every State may depute one nodal officer for viewing the dashboard and ensuring necessary action is taken.

The login ID and Password for the State will be created for the nodal officer. These may be shared with authorized persons in the State administration. ICMR may also send an auto-generated e-mail to the nodal officer at 11 am every day, summarizing the key inventory-related highlights and action items. (GNS)