Mapping and Characterization of Integrated Health Care Policy in India: A Recipe of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare

The global crisis in health care is deepening. For the mainstream community, inexpensive quality health care looks like an illusion for a developing country like India despite having rich medical traditions and ancient healthy lifestyle. Healthcare systems need to understand the complex interplay of tradition, biology, behavior, socioeconomic, and environmental factors that shape health. These factors cannot be considered in isolation from each other. Planning effective treatment of disease requires addressing them all together, fully and integratively [1]. The Indian government has recognized 8 systems of healthcare viz., Allopathy, Ayurveda, Siddha, Swa-rigpa, Unani, Naturopathy, Homeopathy, and Yoga. Most of the hospital care in India are, however, based on the Allopathy and other system are mostly neglected [2]. Recent drug discoveries from the plants of Indian origin have opened new doors in healthcare [3], however, Yoga remains uncharacterized scientifically and therefore disjointed from premier Medical Institutes as treatment modality [4]. It is argued by many that Yoga could be integrated with the Allopathy especially for diseases that have no cure or are non-communicable. The investigators could therefore aim to design a policy which assesses the impact of integration of Allopathy, Ayurveda, and Yoga in health care systems in a scientific and evidence based manner. A module can be used for scoring of available Heath Care system and their impact in India. This may include number of patients visiting Allopathic Hospitals, Ayurvedic Institutes and Yoga Centers including the number of patients who have obtained the benefits from alternative therapies instituted in the premier medical Institutes. Quantification of work and stress profiles of allopathic, ayurvedic and yoga practioners can also provide important inputs for configuring these healthcare workers in mainstream hospitals regulated by the Government. Designing of integrative medicine-oriented policy based on such a pilot study is required so that hospitals, Ayurvedic Institutes, and Yoga Centers can work together in an integrative manner. Such a system will greatly help in making a better health care policy for current health care system and enable ranking of the hospitals in a systematic and evidence based manner