Suppose you are told that thousands of women die from complications of pregnancy and child birth, you may feel that it is a general statement, not worthy of serious consideration.

However, when the World Health Organisation reports after scientific study and analysis that every day, 800 women die in the world because of complications of pregnancy and child birth, including severe bleeding after childbirth, infections, hypertensive disorders, and unsafe abortions, you sense the gravity of the situation. Further, you feel that medical specialists and administrators should take note of this and evolve ways and means to save the lives.

Further, when you read that the risk of a woman in a developing country dying from a pregnancy-related cause during her lifetime is about 25 times more than a woman living in a developed country, the area of focus gets clearly defined.

Let us take another example. How do we come to know that cigarette smoking will lead to lung cancer? It may be common knowledge today. But how did man come to know of this tobacco hazard? The history of several smokers and non-smokers and the changes in people who quit smoking must have been subjected to research and analysis in many cases in different countries.

Imagine that a scientist claims that he has found out an effective cure for a disease. Can the medical fraternity simply recommend it for administration to patients? Certainly not. It has to be put to various kinds of trials, conforming to the related regulatory norms that protect patients being subjected to such trials. The results have then to be analysed statistically.

You should adopt appropriate research methods and statistical techniques, if you have to arrive at reliable conclusions. In medicine, these processes are important. This confirms that statistics is vital in many instances of medical research.

Medical statistics play a significant role in persuading society and government to adopt specific measures for healthcare, in the light of new findings. There are many areas for the application of statistics in medicine. Detecting and identifying diseases, surveillance and monitoring of diseases, preventing diseases and deaths, finding out the causes of diseases, and uating the effectiveness of treatment methods depend on statistical studies. Medical statistics is a fully grown branch of statistics that deserves in-depth studies and systematic research. Simple guesswork is no substitute for statistical exercises and assay.

NIMS

There is an institute working exclusively in the area of medical statistics, under the control of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) ” the National Institute of Medical Statistics (NIMS), Ansari Nagar, New Delhi “ 110 029; Website: www.icmr.nic.in/ pinstitute/nims.htm.

The institute undertakes research in statistical techniques and methodology in the field of health research. It carries out surveillance to ensure the statistical adequacy and validity of various ICMR programmes.

Areas of thrust

The institute pays special attention to the menace of HIV/AIDS. The possibilities of incidence, modelling, estimation and projection of this disease are studied carefully. NIMS is a member of the Science and Technology Group for HIV/AIDS in Asia-Pacific Region. Operation research, including programme uation and survey methodology, are also carried out. NIMS gives statistical support to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The institute makes and maintains the CTRI: Clinical Trials Registry “ India. It is a free and online public record system for registration of clinical trials in India. The Drugs Controller General (India) has made it mandatory for trials. Every researcher who conducts any trial involving human participants should register the trial in CTRI. The trial may be any intervention such as drugs, surgery, lifestyle correction and rehabilitation strategies. The CTRI is a primary register of the ICTRP (International Clinical Trials Registry Platform).

Another area of focus of the institute is conducting training programmes on statistical computing in clinical trials, epidemiology and biosocial research. The institute has to its credit capacity-building training programmes on statistical methods and research methodology to health researchers, programme managers and students of medical colleges and universities. The institute is an approved research centre for Ph.D. programmes in Medical Statistics by the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi.

Major services

The establishment and running of the CTRI is no mean achievement. This is part of a commendable global level healthcare programme.

NACO (National AIDS Control Organisation) has a programme on HIV Sentinel Surveillance, Modelling Estimation and Projection of HIV/AIDS in India. NIMS functions as a nodal institute for this important programme. It is also the Lead Institute for the conduct of IBBA-NH (Integrated Behavioural and Biological Assessment along National Highways) among truckers for HIV epidemic in the country.

The institute functions as the national nodal agency for the implementation of IDSP-NCD (Integrated Disease Surveillance Project: Non-Communicable Disease) Risk Factors Survey. It also gives technical support to the uation surveys at the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

Research projects

A few of the many research projects already completed are indicated below, for bringing out the diversity of the studies.

Epidemiological study on epilepsy, oral cancer, breast cancer and cervical cancer in India.

Oral contraceptive and IUCD testing.

Prence of diabetes mellitus, blindness and peptic ulcer.

Quality of life of cardiac surgery patients.

Socio-economic survey of Indian medical students with reference to motivation in the choice of medicine as a career in India.

Uses and acceptability of the Indian system of medicine.

NIMS offers ample scope for aspirants of statistical studies in medical research.

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