The Indian Panorama

Tag: AIIMS

  • AIIMS cyber attack: No ransom was demanded, most data restored, govt states in Parliament

    New Delhi (TIP)- The government on Friday, December 16,  informed Parliament that no ransom was demanded in the AIIMS cyber attack and most of the functions disrupted due to the attack had been restored two weeks after the attack. Replying to a question on whether patient, hospital or clinical data had been compromised during the attack and if any ransom was sought, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar today said, “Five physical servers of AIIMS, New Delhi on which e-Hospital application of NIC was hosted, were affected. No specific amount of ransom was demanded by the hackers though a message was discovered on the server suggesting that it was a cyber- attack. All the data for eHospital has been retrieved from a backup server which was unaffected and restored on new servers. Most of the functions of e-Hospital applications like patient registration, appointment, admission, discharge have been restored after two weeks of the cyber-attack.”

    The minister said a First Information Report was registered by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences with the Special Cell of Delhi Police under relevant sections of the law, regarding the incident of cyber-attack.

    The government also said that the National Nodal Agency for response to cyber security incidents — the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) had its Empanelled Information Security Auditing Organizations for auditing including vulnerability assessment and penetration testing of the computer systems, networks and applications involving public service delivery including Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM).

    “Immediate measures were taken by AIIMS, Delhi to enhance the security like endpoint hardening, string firewall policies and network segmentation to secure all the data of the Institute,” Pawar said.

    She said that to reduce the patient load on AIIMS, Delhi, setting up of 22 new AIIMS and 75 projects of upgradation of existing Government medical colleges and institutions by way of setting up of superspeciality blocks and trauma centres had been approved under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) and are at various stages of offering inpatient and outpatient services to the needy.

    Source: TNS

  • Few takers for paid booster, can’t be complacent: AIIMS

    New Delhi (TIP)- Amid a sluggish start to the booster-for-all-adults drive, AIIMS-Delhi Director Randeep Guleria on Thursday, April 14,  urged eligible beneficiaries to take the precaution dose and regain immunity to Sars-Cov2 virus.

    The booster numbers have been woefully low since the drive began this Sunday. While 16,352 paid precaution doses were administered to adults (18 to 59-year-olds) on Wednesday, 62,683 paid booster doses have been administered to the eligible since Sunday, making it a very low acceptance rate.

    Experts are concerned about the slow start to the booster drive as daily new cases remained above 1,000 for the second consecutive day today and several states reported a slight rise in infections and positivity rate.

    Nationally, the active cases have also increased to 11,058 after remaining below 10,000 for several days.

    Guleria blamed booster hesitancy to complacency and general Covid fatigue. “Unlike in the past when Covid-19 invoked fear and anxiety, it is no longer such a dreaded disease now. People are less afraid due to the declining infections and have become complacent,” said Guleria.

    He warned beneficiaries against booster hesitancy saying available scientific data suggested that immunity waned with the passage of time and people with comorbid conditions had lower immunity after a period of time, which was why precaution doses were important. “Covid-19 has not ended. New variants can surface any time. We know that with time immunity reduces and those with comorbidities become vulnerable,” said Guleria.

              Source: TNS

  • Leading Indian-origin doctor Ranjit Manchanda to chair AIIMS Infosys Oncology

    Leading Indian-origin doctor Ranjit Manchanda to chair AIIMS Infosys Oncology

    LONDON (TIP): Leading India-origin gynecological oncologist Ranjit Manchanda from London’s Cancer Research UK Barts Centre has bagged the prestigious Infosys Chair in Oncology at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Manchanda, an alumnus of AIIMS New Delhi, completed his MBBS and MD from AIIMS in 1990s before proceeding to the University College London, UK for PhD in gynecological oncology. An acclaimed super specialist, Manchanda’s research spans targeted precision prevention of cancer. His core work includes population-based germ line testing for risk prediction, targeted screening and cancer prevention; developing targeted surgical prevention strategies for ovarian and endometrial cancer; developing genetic testing strategies as cancer diagnosis and prevention and management of familial gynecological cancer.

    Currently Professor, Gynecological Oncology at the Wolfson Institute of Population Health at Queen Mary University of London and Consultant Gynecological Oncologist at Barts Health National Health Services Trust, Manchanda is leading several crucial research projects, early detection of ovarian cancer among them.

    “This award means a lot to me and it is an honor and privilege to have received it. I am excited at the opportunity to work with colleagues at AIIMS across both clinical and academic domains, and bring our institutes together with the common aim to reduce the burden of disease and improve the lives of women affected by gynecological cancer,” Manchanda said. His work at Infosys Chair will support the division of Gynecological Oncology at AIIMS and will grow collaborative working between Queen Mary University of London, Barts Health NHS Trust and AIIMS.

    It will aid early screening strategies for ovarian cancer, the second most common gynecological cancer in India and a leading cause of death from cancer in Indian women with 3.34 per cent (24,015) of cancer deaths in one year.

    Advanced ovarian cancer has a dismal prognosis, with the highest case fatality ratio amongst all gynecological cancers globally – which explains the criticality of Manchanda’s expertise in the area.

    While 5-year survival from ovarian cancer is 94 per cent when diagnosed in Stage I, only 15 per cent cases are diagnosed at this stage. Most (62 per cent) of cases are diagnosed in Stages III and IV, when 5-year survival is only 28 per cent. Manchanda was previously Director Graduate Studies, Wolfson Institute of Population Health, Queen Mary University of London and Clinical Senior Lecturer, Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University of London.

    He has several top awards to his credit including Columbia Hospital for Women Research Foundation Award for the most impactful paper in 2020-21, NHS Innovation Accelerator NIA Fellowship and the William Blair Bell Memorial Lecture Award of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.