Experts urge adoption of integrative medicine

Amrita Samyogam 2017, hosted in collaboration by Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Amrita University’s School of Ayurveda, saw allopathic doctors, Ayurveda practitioners and modern scientists come together on a common platform to discuss and deliberate on strategies to integrate Ayurveda with Allopathy. Experts spoke on the potential of integrative medicine to enhance the management of cancer, auto-immune diseases like arthritis, diabetes, neuro-degenerative diseases, and mental health.

They also highlighted the need for clinical integration, basic science studies, and application of new technologies to improve the reach and effectiveness of integrative medicine. Evidence-based practice guidelines for cross-referrals and combination therapy, understanding the biological mechanisms underlying integrative care, and integration of modern technological tools in Ayurvedic diagnostics, treatment procedures and drug delivery were some of the major topics under discussion at the event.

Rajesh Kotecha, Special Secretary, Ministry of AYUSH, the Chief Guest at the event said, "The government is setting up a nationwide AYUSH grid connecting all hospitals and research labs to record case histories and observations so that a huge amount of evidences can be generated through data analytics about the efficacy of Ayurveda."

Dr P Ram Manohar, Research Director, Amrita Centre for Advanced Research, said, "We need to develop integrated clinical trials and integrated practice guidelines for practitioners across different healthcare systems."

Prof Shantikumar Nair, Director, Centre for Nanosciences; Molecular Medicine, Amrita University said, "In Ayurveda, treatment is through natural herbal medications which can have significant potency and potential for substantial improvement in several disease conditions as well as less deleterious side effects. Their main drawback of Ayurveda is the lack of scientific validation and data documentation as per evidence-based criteria, which prevents its better acceptance and recognition."

Dr Christian Kessler, Internal Medicine Specialist, Charite Medical University, Germany said, "While modern biomedicine is currently rediscovering such inter-relationships in disciplines like psycho-neuro- immunology or psychosomatics, this has been at the heart of Ayurveda for thousands of years."

A unique product, a bandage which utilises nanotechnology to improve the delivery of Ayurvedic medicine was launched at the event. The product was developed in-house by different departments at Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences and Amrita University’s School of Ayurveda.

Other eminent medical experts attending the Conference included Dr Jeffrey White, Director of National Cancer Institute, US; Dr Daniel Furst, Rheumatologist at University of California; Dr Nereo Bresolin, Neurologist, University of Milan; Dr Christian Kessler, Internal Medicine Specialist, Charite Medical University, Germany; Dr. Valdis Pirags, Diabetologist, University of Latvia; Dr Maryam Matar, Genetics Specialist, UAE; Dr Ravi Mehrotra, Director, National Institute for Cancer Prevention and Research, Noida; Dr BN Gangadhar, Director, NIMHANS, Bengaluru; Dr Rama Jayasundar, Professor, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, and Dr Ketaki Bapat, Scientific Advisor to the Government of India, among others.