Share your story and shine at JK Monitor!🌟 Welcome to JK Monitor, where every story matters and every achievement is celebrated! We invite you to share the remarkable journey of your life and showcase your accomplishments to the world. Join our exclusive interviews that honor exceptional individuals just like you. SRINAGAR: The CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine (CSIR-IIIM), Jammu, on Wednesday concluded a five-day health check-up and screening campaign under the flagship Phenome India – CSIR Health Cohort Knowledge Base (PI-CHeCK) initiative, aimed at strengthening preventive healthcare, advancing scientific understanding of population health and developing personalised healthcare solutions tailored to the Indian population.
The programme commenced at CSIR-IIIM, Jammu, on October 25 and culminated on October 29 at the institute’s Srinagar branch laboratory, marking the completion of a comprehensive health screening exercise designed to support both individual health assessments and nationwide biomedical research.
The initiative forms part of a large-scale national health research programme being implemented across the network of 37 laboratories of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) across India. It seeks to advance the vision of Swasth Bharat, Viksit Bharat through scientific research, systematic health monitoring and data-driven healthcare interventions.
Dr. Zabeer Ahmed, Director, CSIR-IIIM, Jammu, attended the concluding programme at CSIR-IIIM Srinagar as the chief guest. A total of 60 participants, including serving employees of the institute, pensioners and their spouses, voluntarily participated in the screening campaign and underwent a range of health assessments.
The examinations included oscillometry and spirometry for assessing lung health, FibroScan examinations, kidney and liver function tests, comprehensive blood biochemistry, pathological screening and other critical health assessments. The screenings are intended to provide insights into participants’ individual health status while contributing to a valuable research dataset for investigating lifestyle-related and other diseases through advanced genomic and proteomic approaches.
The initiative also envisages the collection and generation of biological samples to facilitate future research into disease diagnosis and healthcare, thereby strengthening the scientific foundation for improved disease detection, prevention and management.
Addressing the concluding programme, Dr. Zabeer Ahmed underscored the national significance of the Phenome India initiative, which is being undertaken under the mentorship of Dr. Jitendra Singh, Union Minister for Science and Technology and Vice President of CSIR.
He described the initiative as a significant step towards developing a deeper understanding of health patterns among the Indian population and formulating more effective strategies for disease prevention, early diagnosis and personalised treatment.
Dr. Ahmed further highlighted the programme’s objective of establishing a comprehensive health database by integrating large-scale health information with advanced computational technologies, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).
The resulting database is expected to enable researchers to identify potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers associated with various diseases, while strengthening the scientific basis for precision medicine and the development of healthcare approaches specifically suited to the Indian population.
During his visit, Dr. Ahmed inspected the various testing stations, reviewed the arrangements made for the screening campaign and interacted with participating scientists, healthcare personnel and volunteers involved in the exercise.
The screening camp at the CSIR-IIIM Branch Laboratory in Srinagar was coordinated by Dr. Fayaz A. Malik, Scientist-G, in collaboration with the PI-CHeCK team from the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB).
At the national level, the programme is being coordinated by Dr. Shantanu Sengupta, Scientist-G at CSIR-IGIB and Principal Investigator of the PI-CHeCK project, under the supervision of Dr. Souvik Maiti, Director, CSIR-IGIB, New Delhi.
The concluding session also featured the distribution of certificates to volunteers from CSIR-IIIM and CSIR-IGIB by Dr. Zabeer Ahmed, recognising their participation and contribution to the successful conduct of the health screening campaign.
The completion of the programme at CSIR-IIIM Srinagar marks another step in the implementation of the nationwide Phenome India initiative, which seeks to combine systematic health assessments, advanced scientific research and emerging technologies to improve understanding of disease patterns and support the development of evidence-based, personalised healthcare solutions for the Indian population.
