Ministry of AYUSH to host WHO IEC and Working Group meetings

The consultation meeting of international experts (IECM) on the benchmarks for practice is a continuation of the Working Group Meeting (WGM) WHO organized on the same subject during September of 2018 at the National Institute of Ayurveda at Jaipur.

Ministry of AYUSH is hosting two important WHO meetings during the last week of November and the first week of December 2019 at the Institute of Prost Graduate Teaching and Research in Ayurveda (IPGT & RA), Jamnagar, Gujarat and another is Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga & Naturopathy, New Delhi.

The WHO - International Experts Consultation Meeting (IECM), held from 26th to 29th November 2019, shall host 51 selected international experts (from all six WHO regions) of Ayurveda, Unani and Panchakarma, as well as Traditional Medicine practitioners, researchers, health policymakers, regulators and administrators.

The WHO Working Group Meeting (WGM), held from 2nd to 4th December 2019, shall host 42 selected international experts (from all six WHO regions) of Traditional Medicine literary research, and other related academics including different language experts (Sanskrit, Arabic, Persian, Urdu, and Tamil) with specific knowledge and considerable experience in working in the area of Traditional Medicine languages and scripts.  

WHO is developing Benchmarks Document for Practice of Ayurveda, Panchakarma & Unani and International Terminologies Documents in Ayurveda, Siddha & Unani as part of its global strategy to strengthen the quality, safety and effectiveness of Traditional and Complementary Medicine (T&CM).  Development of this benchmarks document is included in the Project Collaboration Agreement (PCA) signed between the World Health Organization (WHO) and Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India on Cooperation in the field of Traditional and Complementary Medicine under WHO strategy on T&CM covering the period 2014-2023.

The consultation meeting of international experts (IECM) on the benchmarks for practice is a continuation of the Working Group Meeting (WGM) WHO organized on the same subject during September of 2018 at the National Institute of Ayurveda at Jaipur.

The practice benchmark documents are expected to serve as international benchmarks for the qualified practice of Ayurveda, and Unani. They will frame the safety requirements for practicing Ayurveda, Panchakarma, and Unani and provide qualifying criteria for practitioners of Ayurveda and Unani among addressing other details and nuances of medical practice. These documents shall serve as a reference to national authorities to establish/strengthen regulatory standards and ensure the practice of Ayurveda, Panchakarma, and Unani, and assure patient safety.

The purpose of the WHO Working Group Meeting (WGM) is to review, comment and revise the draft documents prepared on the Standard Terminologies of Ayurveda, Unani, and Siddha by a select group of nine experts. The WGM shall help in arriving at an international consensus regarding the structure and content of each of the documents, including on occasions, consensus on the meanings and definition of words used in these systems. The documents are expected to provide: list of terms in the respective systems,  their definitions (short or explanatory descriptions as required) including contextual meanings of the terms,  classical usage/ of the terms with references to the definitions,  suggested English terms, synonyms, and even define exclusions to the meanings of the term in medical context.  The documents shall cover terms related to basic principles, fundamental theories, human structure and function, diagnosis, pathologies, patterns, and body constitutions, pharmacognosy, pharmacology, preparation of food and medicines, therapeutics, and preventive and health promotion interventions, and miscellaneous terms in the respective medical systems.

The 93 International experts are  being invited  from  nearly 30 different countries (Covering all six regions of WHO ) including Japan, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, India, Mauritius, Ghana, South Africa, Tanzania, UAE, Iran, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Latvia, Austria, Denmark, Russia, Hungary, USA, Canada, and Argentina.

(With Inputs from PIB)