Collaborative Research in AYUSH is extremely important as it bridges the gap between traditional knowledge and modern scientific research, promoting a synergistic approach to healthcare, said Dr Mansukh Mandaviya.
Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, launched the AYUSH-ICMR Advanced Centre for Integrated Health Research in AIIMS today. He also announced other mega joint initiatives between the ministry of health and family welfare and the ministry of AYUSH which included multicentre clinical trial on anaemia and the launch of the Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) for AYUSH healthcare facilities.
The AYUSH-ICMR Advanced Centre for Integrated Health Research is being set up to develop integrative health research through integrating AYUSH system with conventional bio-medicine, and modem technology to bring integrative health care to the people for improved patient outcome through innovations related to diagnostics, preventive, health promotive as well as treatment methods.
Expressing his elation at the launch of these collaborative initiatives, Dr Mandaviya said that, “Collaborative Research in AYUSH is extremely important as it bridges the gap between traditional knowledge and modern scientific research, promoting a synergistic approach to health care”. “Ayurveda is a part of our culture, heritage and tradition. It is still being followed in our everyday practice. This strategic collaboration aims to advance Integrative Health Research, integrate traditional AYUSH practices with modern medical science and take India to the forefront of holistic healthcare innovations”, he said.
Public Health Standards
Highlighting that the government is following an integrative approach so as to take the best practices from both the disciplines, ayurveda and allopathy, the union health minister said that “the Union Government is working towards providing quality-oriented healthcare towards the needs of the people of the country. In this direction, Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) were published by the Union Health Ministry as a set of uniform standards to improve the quality of health care delivery. By adopting these reforms, it is expected that the states and union territories will be able to develop AYUSH health care services with set standards and quality infrastructure, thereby enabling the public to avail the benefits of AYUSH medical services for all healthcare.
The union health minister congratulated the Ministry of AYUSH for its remarkable journey in the last decade which has resulted in significant initiatives and achievements. He also urged the students to inspiration from our ancient scriptures and follow their practices with pride.
Integrative Medicine (IM) is an approach to medical care that recognizes the benefit of combining conventional/modern medicine therapies with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) therapies that have been shown to be safe and effective to promote holistic health considering individual’s requirements. IM also addresses the barriers to healing and provide the patient with the knowledge, skills and support to take better care of their physical, emotional, psychological and spiritual health. Rather than limiting treatments to a specific specialty, IM uses the safest and most effective combination of approaches and treatments from the world of conventional and complementary/alternative medicine.
To guide health policies
Experts feel that there is a need for an integrated healthcare regime that can guide health policies and programs in the future, particularly as India has an advantage in this global resurgence of interest as it has a rich heritage of indigenous medical knowledge coupled with a robust infrastructure and skilled workforce in contemporary medicine.
Recently, a Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) between the ministry of AYUSH and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) was signed at an inter-ministerial level. This is to promote high impact research on Integrative Health to generate evidence in priority areas of national importance in healthcare utilizing modern scientific methods. This is a joint effort to establish AYUSH-ICMR Centers for Integrative Health Research (AI-ACIHR) at AIIMS in phases. Joint efforts will be in place to conduct high-quality clinical trials on identified areas/disease conditions of national importance with promising integrative therapies to generate evidence for wider acceptance.
The objective of the AYUSH-ICMR Advanced Centre for Integrative Research is to harness the mutual understanding and research environment between the different systems of medicine leading to Integrative Health Research. It will also work to identify priority areas where the approach of integrative medicine may have potential and conduct integrative research in these priority areas to generate robust evidence and develop integrative management protocols with inputs from both traditional and modern medicine in the identified priority diseases based on the generated evidence. The Indian Public Health Standards for AYUSH healthcare facilities aims to lay down uniform standards and quality infrastructure, human resource, medicines etc. By adopting these standards, States and UTs will able to extend quality AYUSH health care services to the deserving population. The fundamental aim is to augment preventive, promotive, curative, palliative, and rehabilitative services within the public health domain, emphasizing uncompromising quality.
