Srinagar, Oct 29: The CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (CSIR-IIIM), Jammu, concluded a five-day health screening campaign under the Phenome India – CSIR Health Cohort Knowledge Base (PI-CHeCK) initiative, aimed at promoting preventive healthcare and advancing personalised healthcare solutions for the Indian population.
The programme commenced at CSIR-IIIM, Jammu, on October 25 and concluded at its Srinagar branch laboratory on October 29.
The initiative is part of a nationwide health research programme being implemented across 37 CSIR laboratories, with the objective of advancing the vision of Swasth Bharat, Viksit Bharat through scientific research, systematic health monitoring and data-driven healthcare.
Dr. Zabeer Ahmed, Director, CSIR-IIIM, Jammu, was the chief guest at the concluding programme in Srinagar. Sixty participants, including serving employees, pensioners and their spouses, voluntarily underwent various health assessments.
The screening included oscillometry and spirometry for lung health, FibroScan, kidney and liver function tests, blood biochemistry, pathological investigations and other medical examinations.
The assessments are intended to provide insights into individual health profiles while contributing to a research database for studying lifestyle-related and other diseases through advanced genomic and proteomic approaches. The initiative also involves collecting biological samples for future research in disease diagnosis and healthcare.
Addressing the participants, Dr. Ahmed highlighted the significance of the national initiative being undertaken under the mentorship of Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister for Science and Technology and Vice President of CSIR.
He said the Phenome India initiative was an important step towards understanding health patterns among the Indian population and developing improved strategies for disease prevention, early diagnosis and personalised treatment.
Dr Ahmed said the programme aims to establish a comprehensive health database by integrating large-scale health information with advanced technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).
The data is expected to help researchers identify potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers associated with various diseases and strengthen the scientific foundation for precision medicine tailored to the Indian population.
During his visit, Dr Ahmed inspected the various testing stations, reviewed the arrangements and interacted with participating scientists, healthcare personnel and volunteers.
The screening camp at the CSIR-IIIM branch laboratory in Srinagar was coordinated by Dr. Fayaz A. Malik, Scientist-G, in collaboration with the PI-CHeCK team from the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB).
The national programme is coordinated by Dr. Shantanu Sengupta, Scientist-G at CSIR-IGIB and principal investigator of the PI-CHeCK project, under the supervision of Dr. Souvik Maiti, Director, CSIR-IGIB, New Delhi.
The concluding session featured the distribution of certificates to volunteers from CSIR-IIIM and CSIR-IGIB by Dr Zabeer Ahmed.
