Utilization of AYUSH in public health care system: a review

Abstract

India is currently facing shortage of trained health workforce, especially in rural areas. WHO recommends mainstreaming of Complementary & Traditional systems of medicine as an affordable & culturally acceptable way towards achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Despite the Government of India operating AYUSH clinics in PHCs for more than 10 years, we know very little about patients attending these clinics. Exploring the reasons for utilization of AYUSH care is of much value for planning to scale up the integration of AYUSH. The required information on utilization of AYUSH services were obtained through a review of the literature in PubMed databases (including MEDLINE) using the medical subject headings (MeSH) terms: ‘AYUSH’, ‘utilization’, ‘Ayurveda’, ‘Siddha’, ‘Homeopathy’, ‘morbidities’. All such studies which have focussed on profiling of patients who sought care in AYUSH were the individuals who have non–life-threatening chronic diseases or conditions. To improve AYUSH based health care services, it is imperative to understand the acceptability of AYUSH interventions among the general public for the utmost utilization of AYUSH services.

Morbidity profile of patients attended Siddha Regional Research Institute, Puducherry in 2017–A cross-sectional study

“…The rebound to approach Siddha for fever management could be seen in the sheer spike of cases (n = 263 out of total 547 cases in 2017) in August, which was the epidemic period for viral fevers. In India, 50 million people have diabetes; this number is projected to increase to 87 million by 2030 [ 12 ] and the rising trend of chronic diseases due to unhealthy lifestyle and dietary behavior could be well managed with the available AYUSH potential in the country [ 13 ]. In 2017, there were 2197 cases of type 2 diabetes reported, all of which were treated with Siddha sastric medicines (Classical medicines given in ancient Siddha Literature and medicines followed by Tamil People in their family tradition), dietary restrictions, and regular regime of Yogam (Physical and mental exercises dealt in Siddha system) exercises.…”

Artificial Intelligence in Oncology: Present Potential, Prospective Prospects, And Ethical Reviews

“…The widespread use of AI technologies in medicine is hindered by the often mentioned "black box" character of the process, especially when it comes to DL-and neural network-based systems that depend on complex hidden layers of data interaction 63 . Conventional statistical techniques evaluate connections between variables and conduct hypothesis testing in a certain direction, whereas AI seeks to simulate intricate systems and provide precise predictions 64 .…”

AYUSH Systems of Medicine, a Viable Solution for COVID-19 amidst the Uncertainty of Vaccination & Herd Immunity - an Indian Perspective

“…According to AYUSH systems, the common reasons for preferring these treatment options includes lesser side effects, effective disease management, and improvement of quality of life and health promotion, higher preventive potential, and cost-effectiveness. 8,9,10 All these systems are highly known for their holistic approach of treatment and their main modus operandi of remedies is to strengthen the natural immunity of the individual which in turn stimulates the human body to fight with the external infectious agent. The experts on AYUSH claim that the whole human population irrespective of the vulnerable/ non-vulnerable groups would benefit from fighting with the current COVID-19 crisis.…”