Overview of the National Ethics Committee Registry for Biomedical and Health Research in India: Stepping up to safeguard the ethical aspect of research involving human participants.

As notified in the New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules 2019, ethics committees (ECs), intending to review and oversee the conduct of Biomedical and Health Research (BHR) shall be required to register with the authority designated by the Central Government in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Department of Health Research (DHR). The entire process of receiving and processing such applications is done online through the Naitik portal. Vide these rules, it has become mandatory for all institutions/entities whether publicly or privately conducting or intending to conduct BHR involving the human participants, to get their EC, registered with the DHR.

Cost of Surgical Care at Public Sector District Hospitals in India: Implications for Universal Health Coverage and Publicly Financed Health Insurance Schemes.

Background: In low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), provisioning for surgical care is a public health priority. Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri-Jan Aarogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) is India's largest national insurance scheme providing free surgical and medical care. In this paper, we present the costs of surgical health benefit packages (HBPs) for secondary care in public district hospitals.

Translating Research to Policy: Setting Provider Payment Rates for Strategic Purchasing under India's National Publicly Financed Health Insurance Scheme.

Background: In 2018, the Government of India launched Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri-Jan Aarogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), a large tax-funded health insurance scheme. In this paper, we present findings of the Costing of Health Services in India (CHSI) study, describe the process of use of cost evidence for price-setting under AB PM-JAY, and estimate its fiscal impact.

Methods: Reference costs were generated from the first phase of CHSI study, which sampled 11 tertiary public hospitals from 11 Indian states.

Strategic planning to augment the testing capacity for COVID-19 in India.

Background & Objectives: Nearly 5,500 tests for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) had been conducted on March 31, 2020 across the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-approved public and private laboratories in India. Given the need to rapidly increase testing coverage, we undertook an exercise to explore and quantify interventions to increase the daily real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR)-based testing capacity over the next few months. The objective of this exercise was to prepare a potential plan to scale-up COVID-19 testing in India in the public sector.

Laboratory preparedness for SARS-CoV-2 testing in India: Harnessing a network of Virus Research & Diagnostic Laboratories.

Background & Objectives: An outbreak of respiratory illness of unknown aetiology was reported from Hubei province of Wuhan, People's Republic of China, in December 2019. The outbreak was attributed to a novel coronavirus (CoV), named as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)-CoV-2 and the disease as COVID-19. Within one month, cases were reported from 25 countries.