Healthcare Guidelines Development Group

Over the past many years, guidelines have become an increasingly important tool to maintain and enhance appropriate practices, cost-effectiveness, uniformity in action across the country’s length, and helping the authorities decide on the approval of standard operating procedures. Any guidelines, developed with an unquestionable decision-making process helps to optimize care outcomes and discourage the performance of ineffective or alarming practices. Guidelines developed from a systematic review of the evidence addresses gaps and provides evidence thus helping in the prioritization of best practices and future research. Guidelines can help avoid inefficiencies and optimise the value of expenditures by identifying unnecessary or unduly expensive practices.

Body Art Practice Guideline

India has made remarkable progress in controlling the epidemic of HIV/AIDS in the country but one sector that remains unrecognised as a potential source of spread of these infections is the body art industry including skin piercing and tattooing procedures as no regulations or guidelines are in place to practice this art form in India, leading to low perceived risk and susceptibility, and unawareness among the tattoo artists. Today the Indian tattoo industry is worth ₹20,000 crores. Despite being a fast-growing industry, it remains an unorganized sector in India.

Care Homes and Home Care Guideline

We have visited care homes and the quality of services provided vary to such an extent that in some facilities, we are at part with the best in the world and some are ‘business establishments’ masquerading as care homes or de-addiction centres, extracting money from those who need these services. In some of the centers we visited which are taking care of the elderly and those with mental illnesses are not even having a nurse or a qualified healthcare workers and house 40-50 people collecting large sums of money and families pay up as they cannot keep such a patient at home. The objective of this guideline is to provide recommendations regarding various aspects of care delivery at care homes and home care settings and to improve the quality of care that a care home provides.

Pediatric Care Guideline

Healthcare is transforming, so is the lifestyle. Especially among children, these changes have led to serious preventable health concerns which, if addressed timely, can not only decrease the burden of diseases but also improve the overall economy of the country. Similarly, the burden of ophthalmic diseases and mental health illnesses among children in India is higher as compared to any other nation. This guideline focuses on dental, ophthalmic and mental health issues and cognitive development of the child. This guideline will provide parents/ guardians/ caregivers with a holistic guide to their child’s health.

Geriatric Care Guideline

India’s geriatric population is about 7.4 % (2011 Census) 98 million. So, according to the UN definition, India is an ageing nation. The population of senior citizens is likely to grow by 3.8% every year compared to the population growth rate that is down to 1.8 % every year, and with this speed, the senior citizens would most likely be 173 million by 2026. With the current ageing scenario, there is a need for all aspects of care for the Oldest Old (80+ years) namely, socio-economic, financial, health and shelter. A strong support system has to be developed for senior citizens where they are given training and a way of living their life happily and healthily. We are developing this geriatric care guideline.

Nurse Guideline

Health Parliament conducted a study on Nursing professionals of India and the findings revealed a dire need for re-orienting the role of nurses and also addressing the issues of upskilling & remuneration. To address these issues of, but not limited to, over-work, challenges faced at the workplace, etc. we are working on developing the nursing professional guideline to provide them with the due recognition they deserve.

Digital Health Practice guideline for Professionals

Post-COVID-19 Digital Health adoption has increased, but it may slow down post-COVID-19, and based on various studies, we believe, the adoption can be boosted with a comprehensive guideline for practitioners of digital health, covering all major aspects of setting up digital health practice, be it for a clinician or an allied health worker. This guideline will have a profound impact on healthcare delivery. This Digital Health Practitioners’ guideline will be widely disseminated to clinicians and healthcare workers across the country for the improvement of healthcare.

Post-COVID Health Guideline

COVID-19 is still not over and for those who had COVID, the after-effects of COVID may take a long to manifest and to be treated. Knowing well that certain segments of the population may be symptomatic but have not undergone any treatment. Even those who have not got COVID, but were majorly impacted by seeing their near and dear ones affected by COVID and thus has affected their mental wellbeing. This guideline will focus on managing the overall health and mental wellbeing post-COVID.

Women’s Health Guideline

Women comprise half of the world’s population and this half of the population is responsible for creating and nurturing next-generation, one after the other. And due to this reason, their health is often looked at majorly from the reproductive aspect only. But every stage of a woman’s life is as important as the reproductive stage. That is why there is a need for guidelines for women’s health that follows the lifecycle approach covering physical, mental, sociocultural as well as behavioral aspects of health.