The government is working on setting up a nationwide “AYUSH Grid” connecting all hospitals and laboratories to promote traditional systems of medicines.
Who is setting up the Grid?
Ministry of AYUSH has conceptualized AYUSH GRID Project for digitalization of the entire AYUSH Sector.
After completion of due procedures, Ministry has on boarded a Project Management Consultancy and this agency is in the process of preparation of As–Is report, Gap Analysis, To-Be report, which shall be part of Detailed Project Report (DPR).
After completion of DPR, with the help of the consulting agency, Ministry will go ahead with on boarding of System Integrator/s for actual development of AYUSH GRID Project.
The Ministry of AYUSH and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology have already inked a pact to collaborate with each other for digitisation of the AYUSH sector.
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has agreed to advise and give technical support to AYUSH Ministry for planning and development of the grid project.
What will the AYUSH Grid do?
The network will make it easier to assess the efficacy of alternative medicine systems, enabling AYUSH hospitals and laboratories to share data such as case studies and observation reports.
This will be used to create comprehensive data analytics providing assessments of AYUSH practices to reflect the existing body of evidence.
While robust research is being conducted into Ayurveda, the problem arises in implementation of integrative medicine at the level of public health. This is because Ayurveda is still not accepted as a science by the Allopathic community. AYUSH Grid is expected to take care of these gaps.
The project will create an organic and dynamic information and communication technology (ICT)-powered network interconnecting all streams of AYUSH in their key functional areas viz healthcare delivery, capacity building, research and development, AYUSH drug regulation and education.
This will be beneficial for all stakeholders of AYUSH including citizens of the country and in turn will help to achieve various national and international goals in the healthcare sector.
This will instill confidence among people and bring transparency and accountability in the sector at a time when the government is focussing on universal healthcare.
What are the main components of AYUSH Grid?
The main components of AYUSH GRID Project are: health services, education, research, central sector and centrally-sponsored schemes, training, citizen-centric services, rug licensing portal and media outreach.
How AYUSH is helping in improvement of health ecosystem?
Health is a state subject and the concerned state governments adopt various measures to improve the government health delivery system, including AYUSH systems of healthcare.
At the central level, the ministry of AYUSH also takes various initiatives to achieve this goal, mainly through interventions in areas like AYUSH education, AYUSH research, establishing and running national- level institutes, setting guidelines for drug regulation, setting benchmarks for AYUSH digitisation and forgoing international collaboration in relevant activities.
Ministry has launched Pilot Projects like AYUSH Hospital Information Management System (A-HMIS), Tele-Medicine, Yoga locator Application, Bhuvan Application, Yoga Portal, Case Registry Portal, etc. and these projects will be co-opted in AYUSH GRID Project in future.
The ministry has also launched training programmes in A-HMIS. An IT course for AYUSH professionals for capacity building of AYUSH doctors in use of digital technologies in healthcare for improvement of healthcare delivery system in AYUSH has been initiated with the support of C-DAC, Pune.
An array of ayurvedic drugs are available in the market, with some of them developed by country's prestigious research institutions like the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
The CSIR has prepared BGR-34 for diabetes treatment while the DRDO has developed NEERI-KFT for kidney ailments and Leukoskin for leucoderma or white patches.
About National Ayush Mission (NAM)
Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India has launched National AYUSH Mission (NAM) during 12th Plan for implementing through States/UTs.
The basic objective of NAM is to promote AYUSH medical systems through cost effective AYUSH services, strengthening of educational systems, facilitate the enforcement of quality control of Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani & Homoeopathy (ASU&H) drugs and sustainable availability of ASU & H raw-materials.
It envisages flexibility of implementation of the programmes which will lead to substantial participation of the State Governments/UT.
The NAM contemplates establishment of a National Mission as well as corresponding Missions in the State level.
NAM is likely to improve significantly the Department’s outreach in terms of planning, supervision and monitoring of the schemes.
About Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine
The Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine (CCRUM) is an autonomous body of the Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy), Government of India.
It is an apex body in India for the formulation, coordination, development and promotion of research on scientific lines in Unani system of medicine.
Central Council for Research in Unani Medicine provides awards in 4 categories:
Best Research Paper Award will be given each year for outstanding research contributions made primarily in the field of Unani in Clinical, Literary and Drug research separately.
Young Scientist Award every year in clinical, literary and drug research separately—The age limit for the award shall be up to 45 years as on 30th November 2019.
Life Time Achievement Award every year for the Best Practitioner, Best Researcher and Best Academician, separately.
The Best Teacher Award every year in the field of Pre-clinical, Clinical, Literary, and Drug research.
