Despite being one of the oldest and most credible medical practices in India, Ayurveda has resonance only among a limited percentage of population in the country. The comprehensive umbrella of AYUSH, which comprises of streams of treatment practices such as Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and more are known for their effectiveness. However, the patronage of such Indic practices have been very feeble when compared to the Western practices like Allopathy.
An NSSO survey as recent as in the year 2015 reveals that over 90% of the population in both the rural and urban settlements in India preferred allopathy for diagnosis and treatment. The percentage of population that resorted to AYUSH was less than 7% in both the demographics. Though the trend would now be slightly better with the government pushing AYUSH adoption through its educational programs, institutes, wellness centres and regulations, the numbers would be just slightly higher.
The onset of Disruptive Technology
One of the major reasons allopathy has gained a very strong foothold across the globe is because of its adaptability. It has been evolutionary in its journey, adopting modern technologies and trends as they arrived. In recent times, allopathy was quick to adopt the cloud-based tech revolution – Electronic Health Records(EHR) – for its practice and wellness deliverance. With individuals’ medical data stored on the clouds, this ensured people from any part of the world received standardized treatment and diagnosis. Since the data is stored on the cloud, it allowed doctors and medical practitioners to retrieve the data and provide better and personalized healthcare services to patients.
Failure to catch up with technology
The reason for allopathy gaining traction is also the reason why Ayurveda couldn’t evolve as a popular healthcare practice. There are several factors Ayurveda can consider and work on to make it mainstream once again. Today, technology has evolved to an extent that virtual bots are able to detect the most minute presence of ailments in the human body that veteran doctors couldn’t spot. Since healthcare is an evidence-based service, we have diverse technologies today that work on gathering evidence through data.
With the record of patients’, doctors are now able to not just describe and prescribe medications and ailments but predict as well. The government has also come up with regulatory bodies, national policies and standards to benchmark the adoption of technology in healthcare and pave way for regularized, cost-effective and precise treatments.
Opportunity to Reinvent and Rejuvenate
Every new technology or concept has multiple aspects of adoption and Ayurveda has to improve technology adoption in its practices to gain more patronage. Ayurveda practitioners should work on three aspects of development to make the practices mainstream –
- Build a supportive and sustainable ecosystem
- Bring more transparency and record keeping
- Understand and implement standards
Building an ecosystem means that the practitioners should look for more specific ways to adopt and leverage today’s technology. The use of EHR and clinical management systems in their resorts, retreats, clinics and hospitals is an ideal way to make the best out of tech and establish credibility among people and patients. Once the measures to generate, store, retrieve and share data are in place, the practitioners should focus on streamlining healthcare practices.
Patients gain trust on science when they are informed about the procedures and concept behind it. Ayurveda practitioners should aim to achieve the same through the use of EHR. A transparent treatment agenda will not just build trust but spread patronage as well. This treatment practice will further reflect on the outcomes of the practices in the fact that patients will be able to follow medications, therapies or remedies more judiciously.
With the onset of AyushEHR from HealtheLife, there cannot be a better time to kick start the evolutionary process for Ayurveda. Our cloud-based solution tackles any shortcoming your clinic or retreat is likely to face in terms of management and wellness deliverance. With the opportunity to reinvent and rejuvenate Ayurveda ripe, you can get in touch with us to leverage disruptive technology to grow fast.