Thursday, January 30, 2014

Apex Unani medicine institute / AIIUM

Apex Unani medicine institute to come up in Ghaziabad

Rajiv Mani, TNN Jan 18, 2014, 01.39AM IST
Talking to TOI, Prof Saad Usmani, former principal, State Unani Medical College and Hospital, Allahabad, who is a member of the committee to review establishment of formation of AIIUM, said that the planning commission has already made a budgetary provision of Rs 40 crore in the current annual plan for the institution.
The AIIUM is conceived as an apex institution for Unani medicines. The institute would offer post-graduate and doctoral courses in various disciplines of Unani medicines and focus on fundamental research, drug development, standardization, quality control, safety and evaluation and scientific validation of Unani medicines, informed Usmani.
"It will have 200 bed referral hospital for facilitating clinical research," said Prof Usmani. Once fully established, the institute will have 25 departments, 135 specialty clines with inter-disciplinary research laboratories, wherein 120 scholars will have access to post-graduate, doctoral programmes every year," he added.
He further said that the institute shall function as an institutional collaborative centre for global promotion and research in Unani medicines. The institute will be established in Ghaziabad in view of the fact that there are no standard national level institutes of Unani medicines near the capital of the country for catering to the tertiary level Unani medicine healthcare needs of Ghaziabad, Delhi and surrounding states like UP and Haryana.
Prof Usmani further informed that the land allotted for AIIUM is around 20 acres and the institute is expected to start functioning within the next three years.

Ayurveda and unani practitioners are already allowed to prescribe allopathic medicines.

Only 4% of 7L new docs in India every year are allopaths

Madhavi Rajadhyaksha & Malathy Iyer, TNN Jan 11, 2014, 02.01AM IST

MUMBAI: Allopathy practitioners may be up in arms against the state government's move to allow homeopaths to prescribe allopathy medicines, but if the number of doctors registered annually across India is any indication, alternative medicine clearly dominates the scene.
Of the seven lakh doctors who register on an average in India every year, only 3-4% are allopaths. Ayurveds and homeopaths make up the largest chunk.
There were nearly 13 Ayurveds and seven homeopaths registered in the country for every allopath who signed up with their respective medical councils in 2011, reveals an analysis of the latest data from the ministry of health and family welfare. In other words, there were over four lakh Ayurveds and two lakh homeopaths registered in India for 33,000-odd allopaths across the country.
This skewed nature of medical streams and the contentious issue of combined medical practice (those belonging to one stream practising another) have come to the fore yet again following the state's decision to allow homeopaths to prescribe allopathic medicines if they completed a one-year bridge course in pharmacology.
The government cited shortage of doctors in rural areas for passing the decision.
In Maharashtra too, homeopaths and Ayurveds outstrip the number of allopaths being registered. While 53,159 homeopaths were registered in 2012, the number of new allopaths for that year was merely 4,864.
Ayurveda and unani practitioners are already allowed to prescribe allopathic medicines.
Allopaths feel all-India statistics reveal the government's longstanding pro-AYUSH thrust at the cost of allopathic education. Dr Jayesh Lele, secretary of the Indian Medical Association's Maharashtra chapter, said the numbers clearly showed the government's failure to maintain a balance between various systems of medicine. "To promote them further, the government is now granting them backdoor entry into allopathy," said Dr Lele.
The Centre introduced AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy) in 2003 as an integrated department to improve education and research in alternative medicine.
"If there are so many AYUSH doctors, how come the government has not been able to get them to manage primary health centres? Let the government find out how many homeopathy doctors actually stay on in rural areas," said Dr Lele.
However, practitioners of alternative medicine believe the figures strengthen their demand for combined practice. Dr Bahubali Shah of the Maharashtra State Council for Homeopathy said the statistics made it clear that it is AYUSH doctors who keep the medical system going. "In most hospitals in Mumbai, AYUSH doctors are housemen who are involved in taking actual care of patients," he said.
AYUSH doctors, he said, had for long prescribed allopathic medicines along with homeopathic pills. "Allopathy doctors are a small portion of the system, but sales of allopathic medicines far outstrip the sale of other medicines. Doesn't this prove AYUSH doctors have for long been doing combined practice?" he asked. The state government is only acknowledging this and ensuring that homeopaths learn about allopathic medicines in the classrooms itself, he said.
The sanction for homeopathy doctors has come nearly three decades after they first applied for combined practice. The one-year bridge course, a Certificate Course in Modern Pharmacology, that they will need to undergo will be conducted by the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, Nashik.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

AYUSH DOCTOR INTO ALLOPATHY MEDICINE

Maha allows homoeo docs to practise allopathy

Chittaranjan Tembhekar & Malathy Iyer TNN


Mumbai: The Maharashtra cabinet on Thursday gave the green signal for homoeopathy doctors to prescribe allopathy medicines—provided they undergo a year-long certification course in pharmacology.
    The state has around 62,000 homoeopaths who could benefit from the decision, but allopathy practitioners made their uneasiness known immediately. The Indian Medical Association’s Maharashtra chapter is, in fact, preparing to move the court against the cabinet decision. “An MBBS student learns pharmacology in the initial period of the four-and-half-year-long
course. They have three years, including their internship period, to familiarise themselves with pharmacology. So, how can a homeopath learn it a period of a year?’’ asked Dr Jayesh Lele, secretary of IMAMaharashtra.

    Homeopaths first made a plea to allow combined practice almost three decades back. Practitioners in Ayurveda and Unani are allowed to prescribe allopathy medicines under the Maharashtra Medical Council Act 1965 and the Drug & Cosmetics Act 1941.
    Officials said that the cabinet nod was prompted by the shortage of doctors in rural areas. “Even in urban areas such as Mumbai, homeopaths are the ones appointed as housemen in most hospitals. We are just ensuring that their education is a bit better,’’ said an official. He said allopathy doctors abstained from doing mandatory rural service.

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

AYUSH Pharmaceutical Sciences

BHU professor nominated to prepare concept paper TNN | Jan 7, 2014, 11.54 AM IST Rasashastra Faculty of Ayurveda Institute|Ranjeet Roy Chaudhury|Medical Sciences Banaras Hindu University VARANASI: Dr Anand K Chaudhary of the department of Rasashastra, Faculty of Ayurveda, Institute of Medical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University (BHU), has been nominated as a member of the committee to prepare a concept paper for the establishment of Indian Institute of AYUSH Pharmaceutical Sciences (IIAPS). The department of AYUSH, ministry of health and family welfare, Government of India, has constituted the eight-member committee headed by the eminent pharmacologist Prof Ranjeet Roy Chaudhury of New Delhi. According to Chaudhary, the Ayurveda system of medicine is getting momentum worldwide along with Indian system of medicines like Yoga, Sidha, Unani and Homeopathy. This propagation is on virtue of intrinsic strength of fundamental principles of these systems and therapeutic properties of its medicines with their quality, safety and efficacy. He said the looking to these enhanced demand of medicines of these systems at global level, the department of AYUSH constituted the committee to prepare a concept paper for the establishment of IIAPS. This institute will ensure generation of data for quality and standard production of AYUSH system of medicines.