SRINAGAR: The CSIR-Indian Institute of Integrative Medicine, Jammu at its branch at Srinagar today launched a health check-up camp under 'Phenome India CSIR Health Cohort Knowledge Base (PI-CHeCK)' for their staff, pensioners, and their spouses.

The initiative is part of CSIR's broader mission to ensure "Swasth Bharat, Viksit Bharat" (Healthy India, Developed India) through comprehensive health and wellness assessments.

The camp was inaugurated by Dr. Zabeer Ahmed, Director, CSIR-IIIM, in presence of Dr. Fayaz A Malik (Coordinator), Dr. A S Shawl (Ex, Head IIIM-Branch Srinagar); Dr. Hemant Gautam and Dr. Vamsi Yenamandra, scientists from IGIB New Delhi.

While interacting with the scientists, staff and the visiting pensioners, Dr Zabeer Ahmed, Director, CSIR-IIIM stated that CSIR being one of India's largest research and development organizations, with a network of 37 laboratories across the country has launched a unique initiative of PI-CHeCK that aims to integrate state-of-the-art AI and ML models with extensive health data to establish precision medicine frameworks with personalized disease risk scores tailored to the Indian population.

He emphasized that PI-CHeCK is a Pan-India program, being implemented at various CSIR national laboratories and centres. The data generated will be instrumental in developing diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for various health conditions prevalent in the Indian demography.

These assessments include gut microbiome analysis, liver health evaluations via transient elastography/fibroscan, heart health monitoring with electrocardiograms, lung function assessments through spirometry and oscillometry, skin barrier testing, and full blood biochemistry covering Liver Function Test (LFT), Kidney Function Test (KFT), Complete Blood Count (CBC), Lipid Profile besides other routine biochemistry tests.

Later in the event Dr. Zabeer Ahmed visited all testing stations, evaluating the preparedness for the three-day sampling program. He interacted with the PI-CHeCK team and encouraged volunteers to participate actively. The program expects around 75 voluntary participants from CSIR-IIIM, Srinagar.

The PI-CHeCK sampling in Srinagar is coordinated by Dr. Fayaz A. Malik, Senior Principal Scientist at Cancer Pharmacology Division at CSIR-IIIM (Br.) Srinagar, and Dr. Vamsi Yenamandra, Physician Scientist at CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB, New Delhi), with the active support and coordination of the research scholars from IGIB and IIIM.

This health camp represents a significant step towards leveraging advanced technologies for health monitoring and personalized medicine, ultimately contributing to the betterment of public health in India.