The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have initiated the Collection of medical records To support studies headed by US Secretary of Health, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., aimed at investigating autism. As confirmed on Monday, NIH director Jay Bhattacharya, the initiative seeks an exhaustive analysis of the disease nationwide, collects CBS News.
The platform, qualified by Bhattacharya as a “transformative initiative”, will integrate data from federal and private sources. Among them are records of the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Indigenous Health Service, Laboratory test results, genomic information, pharmaceutical prescriptionsinsurance claims and even data collected by devices such as smart watches and physical activity trackers.
“Existing data resources are usually fragmented and are difficult to obtain. NIH himself usually pays several times for the same data resource. Even the data resources that belong to the federal government are difficult to obtain, “Bhattacharya explained in a meeting with agency advisers. He also confirmed that they are in conversations with the Medicare and Medicaid service centers to expand access to their databases.
The project will also include the launch of a New National Diseases Registry to track autism cases in the US. This decision has caused criticism by associations, which reject that Kennedy describes autism as a “preventable disease” for considering it stigmatizing and unfounded.
The plan includes the selection of between 10 and 20 groups of external researchers who They will receive financing and access to these records to carry out studies on autism. Although Bhattacharya did not detail how the selection will be made, he said that the NIH standard procedures will follow and that “proposals of the highest quality” will be supported.
“I recognize, of course, that autism has a range of demonstrations that cover from children with a high level of functionality to children with very serious disabilities. And, of course, The investigation will be very much“He said. Although researchers can study the data, they will not be able to download them, said Bhattacharya, who promised” avant -garde protections “to guarantee the confidentiality of patients.
Kennedy himself said Monday that autism is “An epidemic that eclipses that of Covid-19” in a new veiled attack on vaccines. “It is an epidemic. Eclipsa Covid’s epidemic and its consequences because Covid killed older people. Autism affects children and affects them at the beginning of their lives, when they begin to be productive, and it is something that weakens them a lot to them, their families, their communities,” he argued during an interview on the WABC 770 AM radio collected by the portal The Hill.
