A team of international researchers examine the cost burden of haemodialysis and found that about nine in ten households found it hard to meet the expenses, in spite of subsidies. 

Researchers from Raja Ramanna Centre for Advanced Technology, Indore, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, Delhi, and Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Facility, Visakhapatnam are studying speckle variance optical coherence tomography—a new method of microscopy used to study biological materials. Their recent study checked for the possibility of using the method to microscopically monitor wound healing in real time.

Study by researchers from  Institute of Public Health, Bangalore investigate how successful Primary healthcare Centres are for treating non-communicable diseases like diabetes and hypertension. They find many loopholes in the healthcare delivery system.

Researchers from Indian Institute of Technology Indore have demonstrated a new, ultrasensitive glucose sensor, made of nanopetals of Nickel Oxide (NiO). The new device has shown robustness and very high sensitivity, while utilizing very little power.

Researchers from the Institute of Public Health (IPH), Bangalore, with the support of the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research of the World Health Organization, have assessed the quality of generic medicine and their branded equivalents in South India. Their results show that the quality of generic medicines from multiple sources was similar to that of the branded medicines.

While the readers picked their choice of stories published on the website for 2017, here are the editors’ pick. Hope you enjoy them!

Whose cup of tea is it – ours or leopards’?

Recent study shows that chronic illnesses might be shared with the members of a household. A team of public health professionals from from various universities in India and the USA have studied 2,574 households during 2013 and 2014, to understand the prevalence and stage of diagnosis of five chronic diseases.

Responsible for 1.5 to 5 million deaths per year, around the world, Diabetes mellitus is a very serious disease. India is considered the diabetes capital of the world with as many as 50 million people suffering from type 2 diabetes. This World Diabetes Day, the Research Matters team caught up with Dr. Milind Watve, a professor at the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune and an expert in the field, to find out about the new insights into how better to treat the disease.  

India as a nation is no stranger to the epidemic of diabetes. Most of us would know of someone in our extended group of family and friends, who is suffering from this ‘silent killer’ disease.