A one-day National Consultative Meet on "Research Priority Settings in Traditional Medicine" is scheduled by the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), an apex autonomous agency under the Ministry of Ayush, for June 24, 2024, at the India Habitat Center in New Delhi.
The World Health Organization-South-East Asia Regional Office (SEARO) and the Global Traditional Medicine Center (WHO-GTMC) are collaborating to host this important event, which represents a ground-breaking attempt to bring traditional medicine research into line with world standards and priorities.
Representatives from several Traditional Medicine (TM) domains in India, including policymakers, academic institutions, researchers, patients, and industry players, will come together for the first-ever consultative gathering. The objective is to determine and prioritize important research topics related to several traditional medicine systems, including homeopathy, Siddha, Ayurveda, and Unani.
Vaidya Rabinarayan Acharya, Director General, CCRAS, stated that this program is in line with the WHO mandate in TM.
WHO Collaborating Center for "Fundamental and Literary Research in Traditional Medicine" (WHOCC IND-177) has just been designated for the National Institute of Indian Medical Heritage (NIIMH), a peripheral institute of CCRAS in Hyderabad.
The significance of the upcoming Research Priority Setting exercise, which will create a research plan for the following ten years, is highlighted by that difference. The aim of this project is to assist the global acceptance and integration of traditional medicine by addressing crucial areas of need and ensuring efficient utilization of funding.
The CCRAS has started this crucial process of prioritizing research fields in traditional medicine, led by Prof. (Vaidya) Rabinarayan Acharya and Vaidya Rajesh Kotecha, Secretary, Ministry of Ayush.
Representatives from all around the nation who work in the field of traditional medicine will be present at the meeting. These individuals include the chairman and president of National Commissions (NCISM & NCH), the vice-chancellors of Ayush/Ayurveda universities, the directors of National Institutes under the Ministry of Ayush, representatives from NITI Aayog, RIS-FITM, CSIR, BIS, ICMR, WHO, Ayush pharmaceutical industries, and ethnopharmacology from TDU, among others.
Research on medicinal plants, quality, safety, and efficacy studies, pre-clinical validations, clinical trial monitoring, medical anthropology, and the digitization of historical medical literature are important subjects to be covered. There will be about 100 participants, or specialists, from the Ayush sector, ensuring an extensive and inclusive discussion.
The purpose of this one-day national consultative meeting is to establish the framework for a research strategy in traditional medicine that will span ten years, encouraging stakeholder collaboration and coordinating activities with the World Health Organization's guidelines. It is expected that this cooperative strategy will make a substantial global contribution to the development and integration of traditional medical practices.
(Input from various sources)
(Rehash/Priyanka Pandey/MSM)
