Strategic Meeting Between SMC and NTP

 

SMC organized a strategic meeting at its headquarters on June 19, 2023 with the officials of National Tuberculosis Control Program (NTP) to enhance coordination and collaboration foroffering tuberculosis (TB) services by the Blue Star Network Providers. The meeting was chaired by Mr. Toslim Uddin Khan, MD & CEO of SMC and was attended by 35 senior officials from icddr,b, NTP, SMC, and SMC EL. During the session, SMC made a presentation and highlighted its program strategieswith focuson sustainability and expansion, state-of-the-art manufacturing units and warehouses, clinic operations and overview of its different Star Networks activities. SMC's senior officials proposed the inclusion of its Pink Star (a network of Gynecologists) and Rose Star (a network of pediatricians) in the TB control program, with a specific objective to include child and EP cases. They also suggested incorporating SMC's Tele-jiggasha information, a telephone-based counseling service, in the national TB MIS program too. The experts discussed the current data collection process of the Central Communicability System and quarterly data collection method for NTP. Policy cooperation was also discussed to accelerate the work of NTP and improve overall outcomes through expanding the geographical coverage. The experts recommended prioritizing qualitative presumptive cases over quantitative ones. The NTP officials assured to include the web link of SMC in the NTP site for highlighting SMC's TB activities.