In News: The government launched the ‘UMMID’ initiative to tackle inherited genetic diseases of newborn babies.
About UMMID
- It is an initiative of the Department of Biotechnology under the Ministry of Science & Technology.
- The main aims of UMMID scheme are:
- Establishment of NIDAN Kendras to provide the following services:
- Counselling
- Prenatal testing and diagnosis,
- Management, and multidisciplinary care in Government Hospitals
- Emphasising on the importance of genetic studies, the scheme aims to produce skilled clinicians in Human Genetics
- To prevent/cure inherited genetic diseases, the scheme aims to screen test pregnant women and newborns in the hospitals of aspirational districts..
- Five NIDAN Kendras to be established at the below-mentioned five hospitals to provide clinical care:
- NRS Medical College-Kolkata
- AIIMS- Jodhpur
- Army Hospital Research & Referrals- Delhi
- Lady Harding’s Medical College- New Delhi
- NIMS- Hyderabad
- Government hospitals’ clinicians to be given training in the following:
- Biochemical Genetics
- Cytogenetics
- Molecular Genetics, and
- Clinical Genetics
- To train the clinicians, the support of the following training centres have been taken:
- Madras Medical Mission- Chennai
- SGPGIMS- Lucknow
- CDFD – Hyderabad
- AIIMS- New Delhi
- MAMCNew Delhi
- NIIH- Mumbai and
- CMC Vellore
The three components of UMMID are given below:
- Fellowship in Genetic Diagnostics: Hands-on training for six months will be provided to doctors working in government hospitals by eight departments with state-of-the-art DNA-based diagnostic services for genetic disorders. Each centre will train 4 fellows per year thus providing 96 trained doctors in genetic diagnostics during a period of 3 years.
- NIDAN Kendras (Diagnostic Centres): Hospitals with interested doctors, committed administrators and basic infrastructure have been selected and have been funded to establish genetic laboratories. The financial support and twinning with established Medical Genetics centres will help them to develop state-of-the-art facilities in molecular diagnostics..
Prevention of Genetic Disorders in Aspirational Districts: Each of the 7 centres providing genetic training has adopted one aspirational district and will establish a program for the prevention of genetic disorders including beta-thalassemia and newborn screening for treatable disorders. This will be a prototype of an outreach program that will take the latest genetic diagnostics to the population and lead the way to incorporate genetic services in maternal and child care. This will provide onsite training to the doctors in these district hospitals in addition to creating awareness about genetic disorders amongst the general population.
