In her presentation, Lt Gen Madhuri Kanitkar underlined the need for translation of research into clinical practice.

The Covid pandemic presents an opportunity in a challenging situation where the entire scientific community has come forward as a team to work on rapid diagnosis, molecular surveillance, new repurposed drugs and vaccines, Lieutenant General Madhuri Kanitkar, Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Services (Medical), said on Wednesday.

“The scientific community came forward as a team in the war,” Lt Gen Kanitkar said while delivering the foundation day oration, on the occasion of the 32nd Foundation Day celebrations of the National Centre for Cell Science, online. She spoke on ‘Aligning Research to Health Care – Challenges and Opportunities’.

In her presentation, the Lt Gen underlined the need for translation of research into clinical practice. This requires evaluation of healthcare innovations and prioritisation, she said, urging that there is a need to make our research count and take it to villages to improve health facilities.

“Medical care can now reach the doorsteps where doctors could not, and the need for telehealth has been useful for prevention of common problems like tuberculosis, diabetes and heart diseases and cancer, and is required in the present times,” she said.

Earlier Dr M K Bhat, director of NCCS, said that the centre was actively engaged in various activities to facilitate ongoing efforts against the pandemic, and NCCS had tested more than 17,000 samples from Maharashtra.