A 15-member National Steering Committee has been established in Islamabad to oversee the National Diseases Registry System and to ensure effective use of health data at the national level, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
In this regard, the Ministry of National Health issued an official notification in this regard on Thursday.
According to the notification, the Federal Minister for Health will be the Patron-in-Chief of the committee while the Health Secretary will be the Chairman.
The committee includes federal and provincial health officials, experts, researchers and development partner representatives.
CEO, National Institute of Health Committee appointed as Convener and Secretary.
Provincial DGs Health, Islamabad, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan health representatives included in the committee.
Founding Directors of Pakistan Diabetes Registry and Pakistan Cardiac Registry also included in the committee.
The TORs of the National Steering Committee were also issued.
The committee will formulate the vision, scope and phased expansion recommendations of the National Disease Registry System.
The committee will provide policy guidance to align the disease registry system with national health and research priorities.
The committee will also be responsible for preparing a data governance framework related to ownership, access, exchange and protection of national health data.
The committee will review the national laws, regulations and will monitor the operation in accordance with ethical requirements.
The committee will also monitor the steps to link registry data to the national health information and decision-making system.
The committee will provide recommendations and guidance for the promotion of evidence-based policymaking based on integrated health data.
The committee will also be able to approve the use of integrated data at the national level for research and scientific publications.
The committee will be responsible for monitoring coordination, partnerships, and effective use of resources between federal, provincial, and private sector institutions.
The National Steering Committee will review the performance, progress, and results of the registry system.
The committee will also monitor the process of transferring the complete database, source code, and hosting to NIH.
The National Institutes of Health will serve as the secretariat of the committee.
The decisions of the committee will also be implemented by NIH.
The purpose of the establishment of the committee is to promote health data integration, better governance and evidence-based policymaking at the national level.
Reporter: Babar Shahzad Turk