Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Dec 15: The Jammu and Kashmir now has the only registered Institutional Ethical Committee (IEC) at Government Medical College (GMC), Srinagar with the registration from the central licensing authority Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation CDSCO and the Directorate of Health Services.
Earlier, in the absence of such committee in Kashmir, the projects that needed the mandatory ethical clearance used to be presented before the Ethical Committees of various institutions outside J&K.
However, now, the IEC of the GMC, Srinagar has secured the registration and the permission from the CDSCO makes it the only committee in the entire J&K with the clearance from the competent authority to operate fully.
The committee was registered and permitted by the CDSCO in July this year, while it secured the DHR number from the DHSK in November this year. Notably, neither SKIMS nor does the GMC, Jammu has so far been able to get the CDSO as well as the DHR number.
While the committee was earlier formed constituting various members, today (Saturday) it was reconstituted with filling up the spaces of the members who used to be the members of the committee but either retired or were shifted to other places.
The committee includes Prof Khurshid Iqbal, Head of Cardiology SKIMS, Soura who will be acting as the Chairman of the committee while the members are, Prof (Dr) Omer Javed Shah, Prof (Dr) Pervaiz Ahmad Kaul, Dr Giri Mohammad Ishaq, Prof and Head of the Department of Pharmacy, Prof Masood Tanveer Bhat, Professor of Medicine, GMC Srinagar, Dr Sabiya Majid, HoD Biochemistry, GMC Srinagar, Dr Rukhsana Najeeb, HoD Anaesthesiology, GMC Srinagar, Dr Muzaffar Jan, HoD Pediatrics, GMC Srinagar, Dr Fareeda Noor, HoD Forensic Medicine, GMC Srinagar, Dr Sameena Hakak, HoD, Pharmacology, GMC Srinagar, Prof (Dr) Arshad Hussain (Member Secretary) Professor, Department of Psychiatry, GMC
Srinagar, Dr S Saleem Khan, HoD SPM, GMC Srinagar, Dr Altaf Kawoosa, Professor Orthopaedics, GMC Srinagar, Dr Manzoor Latoo, Associate Professor, ENT, GMC Srinagar along with three more members which include a social worker, legal person and a layperson.
Dr Kaiser Ahmad Kaul, HoD Paediatrics, Dr Showkat Jeelani of the Department of Surgery and Dr Pervaiz Ahmad Shah who was then appointed as the Principal of GMC were earlier the members of the committee-the reconstitution of the committee filled up their spaces.
As per the guidelines, the Chairman of the committee-which is an extra-institutional body-must be from outside the institution, while as there have to members from other intuitions as well.
While the basic structure of the committee remains the same, it now consists of 16 members from GMC, Srinagar as well as from other institutions with some new members also surfacing in the committee.
Member Secretary of the committee Prof Arshad Hussain told EXCELSIOR the committee is the first of its kind in J&K and receives several projects that require clearance every month.
“SKIMS doesn’t have it, nor does the GMC, Jammu and we received 4-5 projects every month from Kashmir University, SKIMS and SKAUST which are mostly research projects as well as PhD projects. As of now, the committee is functioning online,” he said.
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