Prof Dr Dhiraj Bora, Vice Chancellor of Assam Science and Technology University today launched the Year of Excellence in Good Clinical Practice,2021 at Dr B Borooah Cancer Institute (BBCI), Guwahati on the eve of World Cancer Day.  Speaking on the occasion Prof. Bora said “this initiative undertaken by the BBCI is praiseworthy and it will go a long way in further strengthening the doctor-patient relationship and in offering the best care to the patients. The institute has set the right example for other hospitals to follow”.

According to Dr Amal Chandra Kataki, Director of BBCI, Good Clinical Practice (GCP) is an international ethical and scientific standard for the design, conduct, performance, monitoring, auditing, recording, analyses and reporting of clinical trials. It also serves to protect the rights, integrity and confidentiality of trial subjects. In a patient care setting, Good Clinical Practice essentially means delivering the best standard of care with available evidence-based medicine (EBM). Conventionally, doctors have been credited with clinical wisdom according to their skills in making a diagnosis and prescribing a treatment.  The concept of EBM for the treatment of cancer relies on three pillars: a doctor’s expertise, the values and desires of the patient, and the best available research for the management of the condition. It is a known fact that medical practice without scientific evidence is vague caring, and at the same time, medical practice without the art of care defeats the purpose of holistic cure. Now it is high time to strike a good balance between clinical excellence with EBM and integration of compassionate and empathy based cancer care. The good clinical practice also entails cutting down on unnecessary or avoidable costs of investigation to a patient. Observing a year of excellence in GCP shall send a positive message among the public in general and cancer patients attending BBCI. Also, this initiative will set a new benchmark for oncologists of the institute to raise the bar of humane based care, further informed Dr Kataki.

On the same occasion, compiled national and international scientific publications of the Departments of Head and Neck Oncology, Surgical Oncology, and Department of Biotechnology’s centre for molecular biology were released by Prof Bora. It may be mentioned that earlier Prof Dipika Deka, Vice Chancellor of Srimanta Sankardeva University of Health Sciences released compiled scientific publications of other departments of BBCI.