Role of Information Technology in improvement of Ayurved (Medical) Education

Dr. Arun Jamkar

Vice-Chancellor

Maharashtra University of  Health Sciences, Nashik

Role of Information Technology in improvement of Ayurved (Medical)  Education

         Ayurved science is heritage of India. We Indians have always been proud of this rich hreritage. We are the custodians of this heritage of our traditional knowledge.

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         Ayurved is not only for treatment of disease but also for health promotion and preventive medicine. As a part of  health promotions about 23,000 kids attended suvarnprashan camp  in Nanded city reflecting  love , acceptance & affection of people to Ayurved science,.

         Education is dynamic & continuous process of predetermined change in behavior of a individual. Now a days no pathy is complete in management of all diseases so we have to accept medical pluralism and the solution is holistic medicine.

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By studying a single scripture one does not know the conclusive essence of the same, hence the physician should try to understand the scripture after having knowledge of several disciplines. For clarifying the above idea by the verse is stated as ekam etc. without the multidisciplinary knowledge one can not grasp the ideas easily which are briefly mentioned like seed, because of the impressions of other scriptures. For the establishment of historical glory and status of Ayurved we must follow the advances in modern science like Information technology. There is urgent need to motivate students Ayurved as the science is not available in language of modern science so as to understand concepts & love to Ayurved. For making Ayurved popular short courses of Ayurved for housewives is essential.

As stated in Charaka Samhita, ‘The science of life shall never attain finality. Therefore, humility and relentless industry should characterize your endeavor and approach to knowledge. The entire world consists of teachers for the wise. Therefore, knowledge, conducive to health, longevity, fame and excellence, coming even from an unfamiliar source, should be respectfully received, assimilated and utilized’ 

Ayurved has advocated four levels of teaching: Adidhi is  the first step when information is just absorbed; the  second is Bodha that involves deeper understanding and  gaining knowledge; the third is Acharana meaning practice,  and the fourth Pracharana meaning preaching,  advocacy or dissemination of knowledge

Knowledge of Sanskrit and correct understanding of the basic principles, logic  and philosophy should be transmitted primarily through  a detailed study of Brihat-trayi using Adhyayana, Adhyapana and Tadvidyasambhashana.

It is now high time for evidence based medicine. Maharashtra University of Health Sciences had taken initiatives in conducting double blind controlled clinical trials on the basis of reverse pharmacology of success stories in management of diseases by Ayurvedic science. In area of research in Ayurved Sidney University of Australia is interested with Maharashtra University of Health Sciences Nashik. National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Medicine is started under National Institute of Health  in USA .

Ayurvedic genomic study is new area of research on which Dr. Bhushan Patwardhan is involved in interpretation of Ayurvedic Prakruti in light of bioinformatics, molecular biology & genetics.

Validation and standardization  of Ayurvedic medicine is essential on international accepted parameters like DNA fingerprinting by High Pressure Liquid  Chromatography ( HPLC),  Gas Chromatography ( GC) etc. Maharashtra University of Health Sciences is planning to set up industry sponsored Drug Standard laboratory. Toxicological study of Ayurvedic drugs is also important for acceptance of ayurvedic drugs globally. Some countries are refusing ayurvedic drugs because drugs are showing toxicity to face this problem Ayurvedic pharmacoepidemeology should be develop rapidly

New diseases are emerging ex. Chikungunya, Dengue, HIV there is need to diagnose and manage this diseases with Ayurvedic concepts. Superbug is new recent challenge to entire world for prevension for this condition chemoprophylaxis will help. Immunomodulation with Ayurvedic Panchkarma and Rasayantherphy to patients of infected diseases will help.  

TKDL (Traditional Knowledge Digital Library) is a collaborative project between Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Ministry of Science and Technology and Department of AYUSH, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, and is being implemented at CSIR. An inter-disciplinary team of Traditional Medicine (Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Yoga) experts, patent examiners, IT experts, scientists and technical officers are involved in creation of TKDL for Indian Systems of Medicine. With help of this project all ancient literature relevant to Ayurveda will be available for entire world.

AyuSoft is a vision of converting classical Ayurvedic texts into comprehensive, authentic, intelligent and interactive knowledge repositories with complex analytical tools. This programme is prepared by Centre for Development of Advance computing with help of Department of Information technology Govt. of India. This programme will help students, teachers & practioners of Ayurved.

National mission for manuscripts is unique project in its programme and mandate, the Mission seeks to unearth and preserve the vast manuscript wealth of India with aims to locate, document, preserve and render these accessible—to connect India's past with its future, its memory with its aspirations.

Online journals like International journal of Ayurved Research & Journal of Integrative & Alternative medicine are available now with the help of AYUSH Govt. of India.

To link Medical Libraries with adequate stock of books and journals for access to all thereby reducing state expenditure on medical college libraries (Digital Library Network)

To promote medical research by providing infrastructure for quick exchange of ideas and co-ordination with group of researchers involved in collaborative multicentre studies and facilitating current information access through digital library network

Online Continuing Medical Education (e-CME) to enhance knowledge and teaching skill and possible Accreditation of Medical Teachers and Health Care Professionals Now online encyclopedia is available eg. wikipedia.

If family member of one Ayurvedic physion family(Vaidy Parampara) is not interested in Ayurved then traditional knowledge of that vaidya is not transferred to next generation. Preparation of video clips, CDs & DVDs of famous teachers to next generation student is another application of IT to preserve Ayurved knowldge.

MUHS has started department of AYUSH in university to make available research activity in drug development, multicentric double blind controlled clinical trials,  various certificate and fellowship courses eg. Reverse Pharmacology and drug development, preventive cardiology. For which separate ad-hoc board for AYUSH courses is established in university. In this department we have started Ayurvedic consultation in Health centre. For endangered medicinal plants Maharashtra University of Health sciences planning to develop AYUSH Medicinal Plant Garden & plant tissue culture laboratory with the help of Forest Development Department, horticulture experts soil geologists and agriculture experts.

Research in Sanskrit language is also essential because students are studying through only translated syllabus books which are not sufficient for understanding the subject matter so in collaboration with Kavi Kulguru Sanskrit University, we are planning refresh courses for teachers and students of Ayurved.

Education was in Class Rooms in Schools, Medical Colleges, Online Education requiring just a Computer and an Internet Connection. Future of universities is outside convetional classroom and outside traditional campuses. Universities should create throught leaders, change agents, and globally recognizable innovations. A population of India is an asset. There is more intelligent student in India than total no students in US. Now there is need of transformation of Mass production to mass customization of student and industry model to collaborative model.

IT made available us information easy as internet facility with 3G , Broadband all information is available even in mobile  which is becoming sixth sense of students. eg. Android application of Ayurvedic Medicnal Plants. IT is providing us quick information which is available whenever we need. Answering  queries , Sending  images  of Histology, radiology CT  scans  and  MRIs.Thus IT will change current hard copy generation to digital world generation.

All the medical education knowledge content will be stored in the central repository located at the data center of national resource center with a backup facility at disaster site

Due to 3G service of communication availability of online videos eg. websites of khanacademy, youtube, websurge is good source of education which can be utilized for dissemination of knowledge.

Use of social networks like facebook, google plus, twitter can be used for teaching eg. http://in.groups.yahoo.com/group/jamkarstudents/. Sending  images  of Histology, radiology,CT  scans  and  MRIs, Answering  queries ,

IT has been desolved limitations of time & distance and made possible to get relevant information anytime and anywhere. The medical teachers can take the help of their colleagues who are specialist for those topics are in the medical colleges and may be separately by continues. The knowledge and experience of a medical becomes available to a wide student audience spread. IT will help in development of syllabus through exchange; collaboration and innovation of course content to improve knowledge creation & intellectual capital.

Problems in Lack of computer literacy among most medical students & teachers, lack of cooperative behavior from management of medical colleges, non availability of addresses of important web-site addresses.

        There is need of National Medical College Telemedicine Network Architecture which will work on the basics of cloud computing. As there is diversity in standards of quality of teachers,  availability of educational tools (slide projectors, projecting microscope, still and moving digital images), books and journals, quality and type of patient materials (geographical difference in the incidences of various diseases). There is also diversity in rural, urban and semi urban patients and diversity in the quality of students because of entry and exit parameters.

Networking of medical colleges can bridge distance between student & Teacher, quality of Postgraduate education in Indian Medical colleges will be improved, and tertiary academic medical centers can provide additional inputs through networking

          Objectives of this network will be, Improving quality of medical / paramedical education and meeting the educational needs of the students despite paucity of teachers, facilitating cognitive component of learning by providing interactive teaching material online developed by a group of competent teachers at undergraduate, postgraduate and super-specialty levels, to promote psychomotor skill development through tele-mentoring, to link Medical Libraries with adequate stock of books and journals for access to all thereby reducing state expenditure on medical college libraries (Digital Library Network),to promote medical research by providing infrastructure for quick exchange of ideas and co-ordination with group of researchers involved in collaborative multicentre studies and facilitating current information access through digital library network ,online Continuing Medical Education (e CME) to enhance knowledge and teaching skill and possible Accreditation of Medical Teachers and Health Care Professionals,  implementing uniform examination pattern and evaluation. Coaching students with online and offline in MCQs ,  enhancing computer literacy among medical students and teachers, facilitating e-Health Governance , sharing of resources and establishing effective communication between the medical colleges and its faculty, providing educational material & tools to medical teachers, improving quality and reducing the cost of health care delivery by tele-consultation and tele-follow up.

          For development of road map for this network there is need to identify a National Knowedge Resource Center which will be connected with high speed fiber network with few selected apex medical institutions which in turn will be networked with medical colleges in the region and to identify of few apex medical academic institutions region wise and networking each with medical colleges in the region covering few states. We should also identify, MPLS-VPN Network backbone to provide bandwidth 10 Mbps to start with  (ultimately 1G) at Regional & 2 Mbps at medical college  nodes or as part of National Knowledge Network where ,each medical college serves as an  node to be linked with district hospitals in their perimeter.

 One lecture theatre of each medical college will be converted to digital integrated medical lecture theater providing necessary infra structure. Each resource center will have facility for multimedia education content development. All the medical education knowledge content will be stored in the central repository located at the data center of national resource center with a backup facility at disaster site.

Expected outcome from this network will support multimedia data exchange, multi-point video conference, both in interactive and video broadcast mode.  Central Repository of Medical Education Content will do live transmission of the content on day to day basis. Entire network will provide a platform for interactive distance learning and adaptive environment for medical students, teachers and health care professionals. It will also support digital library network. Ultimately Virtual Medical University can be established at National Level.

Electronic classroom is basically a mailing list of a single class in which teacher himself is the moderator. Possible usages will be reviews  of  websites  showing  contents of  undergraduate levels, answering  queries , sending  images  of Histology, radiology, CT  scans  and  MRIs. Ask the entire class of students to have an email address and make a mailing list of the entire class then send notes, images and addresses of topic related websites to the mailing list.

Possible usages of e-class will be,  connection  between students  of  different  medical  Colleges  for  sharing of  experience,  prevention  of  duplication of  effort, building a generation  of  second  professional medical  students which  is  comfortable with  online medical education, possible solution  for  shortage of  medical  teachers. For making e class more effective ask some superspecialist on the subject concerned from around the world to join. Mention some content of the web-site during the class. All handouts and forms should be given in electronic format.

Request to central council will to make Computers compulsory in every Department especially Basic and Para-Clinical Departments and promotion to cross-fertilization techniques between different streams of Knowledge

In concept of smart medical college, all faculty and students including paramedical and nursing are computer literate and have an Email address. Every Department has at least one Computer. Everybody is linked by an Electronic Classroom of the Institute through a Wi-Fi network and Cloud Computing. Management should sponsor this Project. An active team of faculty and students Panel should operate the electronic classroom jointly. Medical CDs should be available in every Department.

Telemedicine network project in Orissa has been implemented with help of Indian Space Research Organization. Doctors who are computer literate are more powerful than those who are not.

Knowledge management is a discipline that promotes a collaborative and integrated approach to the creation, capture, access and use of a health system’s information assets.  This includes database, patient records and, most importantly, the un-captured, tacit expertise and experience of individual worker IT is helping us for better knowledge management.