Dr Richa Barve
Ayurveda and current health challenges
In spite of technological advances, the present global health care systems are facing the many challenges like increase non communicable and lifestyle diseases as diabetes, coronary artery disease etc[1]. India is expected to be world capital of diabetes in 2025[2]. Some infectious diseases like malaria, tuberculosis are still a challenge due to drug resistance etc. Emerging diseases like AIDS, hepatitis are posing new challenges to health care system and health economics.
Ayurveda (ancient and holistic science of life) is becoming center of attraction as potential solution for current challenges. This is evident in changing policies and mindset of researchers, physicians and patients[3]. Ayurveda adopts holistic but customized approach for diagnosis and treatment. This holistic nature includes physical, psychological, social and spiritual aspects.
Strengths of Ayurveda
More than drugs, Ayurveda considers every aspect of life. Prevention of diseases is prime objective of Ayurveda. Various concepts of Ayurveda like Rasayana and Panchakarma are becoming center of attraction for researchers. It is being considered as powerful search engine for focused and safe drug discovery[4]. Ayurveda is a potential option for many health challenges.
It is the need of present times to renovate the practice and research of Ayurveda globally. For this it is very much necessary to make Ayurveda easily accessible, affordable and practical. There is an urgent need of an effective & uniform professional media of conversation for the faculty of Ayurveda.
AyuSoft: multiple solutions for diverse needs
AyuSoft is designed considering heterogeneous needs. AyuSoft is a vision for development of multiple tools for awareness, training, practice, research and propagation of Ayurveda through IT based solutions.
The objectives of AyuSoft are
- Authentic training of Ayurveda
- Research in Ayurveda
- Documentation and analysis of practice based data
- Propagation and awareness about Ayurveda
AyuSoft is a comprehensive, interactive, intelligent system. It is based on the knowledge of classical Ayurvedic texts. It facilitates application of ayurvedic principles to overcome present challenges. The main aim of this project is to shorten the gap between the not easily accessible knowledge of Ayurveda and the issues faced by present global health care systems[5].
AyuSoft applications
AyuSoft covers multiple applications under one roof. This has been designed after a national level survey and consultation with experts of various fields.
- Decision Support System for physician
Ayurveda Person Information Management System – This application mainly deals with management of personal information.
Disease Diagnostic and Treatment – This application provides a precise diagnosis based on consideration of causative factors, present signs and symptoms, clinical examination and history etc. Treatment is also suggested considering the condition of the patient and associated signs and symptoms etc.
Constitution and tissue quality assessment this covers assessment of physical constitution, psychological characteristics and tissue quality assessment.
Case analysis Through this tool all the statistical data of related to the particular physician or hospital can be generated.
Data Mining Tool It facilitates complex query building to get the required results. - Encyclopedia – This is encyclopedia of Ayurveda. This comprises of the digitalized classical tests, articles of all subjects of Ayurveda by renowned physicians and mentors, photos of many herbs, images of diseases, audio files of mantras and video clippings of Panchakarmas.
- Glossary – This is the glossary of Ayurvedic terminologies.
All these applications are interconnected to each other and they could be used in clinical practice, classrooms, multi-centric clinical trials and other teaching or research institutes. Pharmaceutical industries and R&D sector could be benefited with IPR generation through huge database.
Utility in awareness, training, practice and research
Each AyuSoft application can be useful for multiple users as:
- Ayurveda Personal Information Management System
- All data of clinic will be helpful for research purposes.
- Evidence based clinical data generation will be very much easy due to this application.
- Import / export of data for multi-centric trials could be easier.
- Networking of many physicians is a practical need for follow-up, referral and second opinion. This can be achieved by the use of this application as an effective communication technology.
- The students will be able to share the experiences of all the stalwarts. Due to this, this tool can be used in training of health management.
- Disease Diagnostic and Treatment
- Accuracy in clinical examination, better documentation, time saving clinical management
- With the help authentic database of Ayurveda, new or emerging diseases like AIDS and cancer could be studied in ayurvedic terminology and could be treated accordingly
- Information about contemporary signs, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment could be documented. By comparing and correlating all this data we can standardize treatment of emerging diseases.
- Treatment suggested in our system covers multilevel management by drugs, diet, behavioral modifications and other dos and donts related to lifestyle and also Yoga.
- The system also suggests treatment to avoid recurrence of the disease and also the rejuvenation therapy (Rasayana) for specific diseases. This Rasayana therapy is mainly helpful in prevention of diseases and in building immunomodulatory system.
- Data generated through this system can be used for efficacy and safety of ayurvedic drugs.
- Constitution Assessment
- This application will be mainly helpful in preventive medicine. The system suggests the diet and lifestyle depending upon the result of constitution (Dosha Prakriti). This advice is mainly for preventing the person from any disease for which he is prone.
- Right from the childhood i.e. the child psychology factor to career then to finding spouse and up to the old age. In childhood child psychology can be understood if Psychological constitution (Maanasa Prakriti) of the child is known. One can easily choose the career by knowing ones psychological and physical capacities.
- Tissue quality (Dhaatusaarataa) assessment is mainly related with the better body tissue development. The rasayana therapy suggested on the basis of this assessment will be helpful to develop strong immunological system.
- Encyclopedia
- Ayurveda domain has remained a challenge due to its complexity and vast logic just mentioned in Samhitas. Information retrieval was an art and lot of experience, judgment and reciting was needed. Now computers are changing this scenario by development of easy accessible data from Samhitas. This quick references and easily available information not only saves time but also helps as a source of innovative ideas. The digitalized Samhitaa part is very much helpful in training and research.
- Easy access to Samhitaa would facilitate training of student and physician. Instead of any school of thought teaching modules developed in suitable multimedia form would make many complex concepts and terminologies clear. That will result in better understanding and perfection of the physician.
- The video clippings of Panchakarmas are provided with narration and detailed textual information. This will be very much helpful in training and also for physicians.
- The photos of drugs are going to be an authentic source to identify the specific herbs. This will be very much helpful for students, teachers and the pharmaceutical industries.
- Data mining tool
- All the data is divided into various categories. The diagnosis part contains signs and symptoms, causative factors etc. The treatment part contains formulations, dietary recipes, lifestyle advice etc.
- One can search the voluminous database to get the required results by building queries through thousands of criteria.
- This can be used as a simulating tool and could be helpful for training, research and for physicians.
- Formulations and diet database would be major attraction of pharmaceutical industry for new formulation design.
- Glossary
- Some ayurvedic terminological words are highlighted from etymology to clinical application.
- This application will be helpful for authentic training and research.
- This application will be mainly helpful for propagation of Ayurveda.
- Case Analysis
- Through this application we can generate all the statistical data needed for evidence based medicine[6].
- This data will be helpful in practice.
- The data generated by this tool will be helpful in proving the efficacy and non toxicity of certain ayurvedic drugs.
- This application will facilitate proper documentation of all the practical data.
Conclusion
AyuSoft provides various solutions for layman, students, academicians, industry, practitioners and researchers. This is a pioneering effort to facilitate application of Ayurvedic concepts in modern era. Center of Development of Advanced Computing is working on this project with the help of national level experts of Ayurveda, information technology, medicine and basic sciences. This is the beginning of Ayurveda and information technology integration for present challenges of health care.
Dr Richa Barve,
Research Fellow,
Center of Development of Advanced Computing, Pune
[1] International Diabetes Federation. Diabetes atlas 2000. Brussels: IDF, 2000
[2] Burden of non-communicable diseases in South Asia. BMJ, 328, 807-810.
[3] World Health Organization Traditional Medicine / CAM Strategy 2002-2005.
[4] Bhushan Patwardhan et al, Ayurveda and natural products drug discovery, Current Science, 86, 789 799, 2004
[5] Dhurandhar Medha, Scientific Validation & Technical Evaluation of Ancient Medical Systems workshop, Delhi, Feb 2006
[6] Prabhune Yogesh, Role of AyuSoft to Ameliorate Evidence Based Medicine in Ayurveda, National Conference as Ayurveda Medicine as Evidence based Medicine, Hyderabad, Feb 2006.
Last updated on March 8th, 2021 at 10:41 am