Singapore: The Indian health minister, Dr Harsh Vardhan announced that a Management Information System (MIS) using IT tools will be developed for the benefit of central and state health departments. "There is scant information available on the adverse impact on health caused by ecological and environmental deprivation at a local, regional and national scale. The movement of masses and a sizable population of migrant labourers make this mission difficult without inter-sectoral and inter-state coordination,'' he said.

The minister further said, "The United Nations, World Health Organistaion and all international institutions have warned about the dangerous link between deteriorating environment and disease outcomes. We need to fight this negative impact by applying established tools to gather information and share it with the community for involving them in this movement of creating a healthy and safe environment. We also need to undertake a massive capacity building exercise to create a pool of trained manpower to achieve this mission."

The minister commented that the health ministry and its satellites in the states need an institution like the Indian Agricultural Statistics Research Institute (IASRI). So for the short term he has decided to commission a MIS using IT tools which would, at the click of a mouse, make available a host of valuable data gleaned from computers at every tier of the health infrastructure. "My idea is to create an aggressive data collection system and research organization for the health sector which would preferably be autonomous. I will take up this matter with the Prime Minister soon and involve the state governments in this endeavour," Dr Harsh Vardhan informed.