Codifying traditional med data to boost research

Recently the prime minister talked about the new coding system in Traditional medicine practices to improve health governance in AYUSH sector.

Issue: Most doctors practicing traditional systems of medicine - ayurveda, unani or siddha - follow their own style to write name of a disease and methods of treatment, making it difficult for a patient to approach another doctor for follow-up.

New approach:

• Ministry of Ayush, with help from WHO is codifying terminology related to diseases and treatment offered in these systems of medicine.
• This will help doctors follow the same pattern while writing prescriptions.

Benefits:

• One advantage of this will be that if one goes to another doctor with that slip, they will get complete information from just that slip - from the illness, treatment, medication prescribed, and duration of treatment to one's allergies.
• Another benefit will be to those associated with research work.
• Scientists from other countries will also get complete information about a disease, medicines and their effects.
• As the research expands and scientists come together, these medical systems will yield better results and people's inclination towards them will rise.

Progress so far:

• The ministry said groundwork for codifying diseases and treatment under various forms of traditional systems of medicine was created during the 2017 Ayurveda Day celebrations when National Ayush Morbidity and Standardised Terminologies Electronic (NAMASTE) portal was launched.
• Data and terminology related to diseases based on ayurveda, siddha and unani medicine have been included in WHO ICD-11 classification.
• This will open up possibilities of large-scale scientific evidence generation in Ayush sector and increased credibility of its usage across the globe.
• The ICD classification will also help in medical insurance coverage, creation of insurance packages and insurance portability, and boost medical value travel for Ayush care.

AYUSH Grid

• AYUSH Grid, initiated by the Ministry of AYUSH, aims to bring onboard all AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) facilities including hospitals and laboratories and to promote traditional systems of healthcare.
• The Ministry of AYUSH and Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology have already inked a pact to collaborate with each other for the digitisation of the AYUSH sector.

NAMASTE Portal

• National AYUSH Morbidity and Standardized Terminologies Electronic Portal (NAMASTE Portal) was launched on 17th October, 2017 (2nd Ayurveda day).
• The portal provides standardized terminologies & morbidity codes for Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani systems of medicines.

Morbidity codes provide a comprehensive classification of diseases described in the traditional medicines system.