The Right to Information Act was enacted in India in 2005 to reduce corruption and promote transparency across various public sectors. Public Health Institutes also come under the purview of this Act. This article reviews the implementation of the RTI Act in Health Sciences and explores how it enables access to information, bringing transparency and accountability. The review was based on the literature available on the PubMed database. “Right to Information Act” Title/Abstract OR “RTI Act” Title/Abstract OR “Right to Information” Title/Abstract –search query was used to find the literature. All 227 resources retrieved using the search syntax mentioned were screened. Of those, only 21 were included in the study because they contained the term “Right to Information Act” in the title and/or abstract, as they were the most relevant. A thematic review was conducted to identify the major areas of concern in Health Sciences. The themes are: RTI Act as an unconventional legal tool for accessing information in Health Sciences; RTI Act vs. Patient Privacy and Rights; RTI Act and Health-related Policy Framework; RTI Act in disclosing Health Service Infrastructure, Occupational hazards, and Data Discrepancy.
Kuheli Dutta (Mon,) studied this question.