The advantages of medical networking are to promote communication and collaboration, collective learning, inter-personal bonding and to improve clinical judgment as well as evidence based practices. The Indian Network for Chronic Respiratory Disease (indianetred) is similarly proposed as a voluntary alliance of experts in pulmonary and public health services along with other stake holders engaged in promoting respiratory health. This will constitute a part of infrastructure for the development of respiratory health systems and services.

The spectrum of respiratory diseases includes chronic problems such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), environmental, occupational and interstitial lung diseases. In addition, there is enormous burden of acute and sub-acute condition such as the respiratory infections (tubercular and non-tubercular), lung tumors and respiratory failure. In 1990, world-over and for both sexes combined, lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs), tuberculosis, COPD and asthma ranked first, seventh, twelfth and thirtieth respectively in terms of disease burden and their effect on disability adjusted life years (DALY). For India, respiratory infections and other respiratory diseases ranked third and seventh respectively.

A significant amount of data on respiratory diseases, in general, is missing. This is especially true for the mortality data related to respiratory diseases since many of them are misclassified as cardiovascular deaths. In India, only around one-fifths of all deaths are medically certified. Even among the medically certified deaths, the cause is often not properly mentioned and leads to the problems of inaccurate coding. This is also attributable to the inadequate formal training of residents and medical students. Chronic respiratory diseases, as per currently available estimates constitute the second most common cause of adult mortality in India. In fact, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is the only smoking related disease which is projected to increase in terms of absolute mortality.

Design

The IndiaNetRed is designed as a collaboration of group experts for academic and development activities in respiratory sciences. It is designed to promote capacity building, support and research collaboration, and develop evidence–based national consensus. For this process, it would identify and mobilize expert members, groups, institutionsand other main agencies.

Network Content:

The web Network will function with regular updates and inputs from members. (It was decided that regular meetings and workshops of this regional network would be held to facilitate exchange of information and experiences. Besides these, regular communication would also continue among the members by various other means (e-mail, fax and teleconference)). This website will serve a platform for access to a whole range of subject specific information as well as for technical assistance and training. This will help to enhance capacity building and strengthening of infrastructure.

The focus areas of the Network include the chronic obstructive lung diseases, environmental/occupational lung diseases, tobacco, and other miscellaneous diseases (respiratory infections, interstitial lung diseases, tumour).

Research:

The Network will enable sharing of information (both published and ongoing), building databases and registries, identifying gaps, priority setting and development of uniform protocols. Some of the important topics of interest include the disease burden studies, the risk factor assessment, interventional and other operational research studies.

Health education:

The target audience includes the health related manpower (e.g. primary care physicians, public health professionals and non-physician health workers) as well as the general public. Various kinds of approaches which can be used include the case studies, disease information (e.g. guidelines), video clips, medical images and slides. For the general public, information can be uploaded in the form of online documents for patients health education on specific diseases. General health messages such as the anti-tobacco measures will be highlighted.

Network activities:

Besides the web based networking, the Network will provide a broader platform for exchange of ideas through discussion forum, meetings, workshops, training programmes and collaborative research. It will undertake mutual activities for individual and institutional participation and progress.

The Network will attempt to improve several different outcomes including the building of databases with reliable information, formulation of guidelines, regular intra-network communication (e-newsletter or some other form of publication) advocacy and in fluency regional/national policies for improving respiratory health.

The Network will encourage its members to share ideas, data and other resources on mutual trust. This will help to share the success stories and the lessons learnt from these experiences. It should also be possible to share project-reports, publications and technical manuals. The Network will extend all support to the members for a greater reach and expansion.

Issues related to secrecy and copyrights, reports and publications etc. will be duly addressed while sharing or exchanging such information. Similarly, patent rights will not be violated. Apparent and potential conflicts of interest, if any shall be resolved on mutual discussions, decisions and appropriate actions according to the standard, laid-down guidelines and criteria.