The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in collaboration with the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences under the Ayush Ministry has called for proposals to establish an integrative health research centre at the AIIMS.

The aim is to develop integrative health research through integrating Ayush system with conventional bio-medicine, and modem technology to bring integrative health care to the people for improved patient outcome through innovations related to diagnostics, preventive, health promotive as well as treatment methods, the call for proposals document said.

"Under the extramural research programme, ICMR and Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences will jointly fund to set up Ayush-ICMR Advanced Centre for Integrative Health Research (AI-ACIHR), at AIIMS to conduct research on identified areas focusing on integrative healthcare by experienced research teams," it said.

The aim of the Ayush-ICMR Advanced Centre for Integrative Research at AIIMS will be to harness mutual understanding and research environment between different systems of medicine leading to integrative health research, and to identify gaps in knowledge and priority areas where the approach of integrative medicine may have potential and conduct integrative research in these priority areas to generate robust evidence, the document said.

The objective is also to develop integrative management protocols with inputs from both traditional and modern medicine in the identified priority diseases based on the generated evidence and carry out mechanistic studies to explain the integrative medicine approach. There is a need for an integrated healthcare regime that can guide health policies and programs in the future. India has an advantage in this global resurgence of interest as it has a rich heritage of indigenous medical knowledge coupled with a robust infrastructure and skilled workforce in contemporary medicine, the document stated.

A Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) was recently signed between the Ministry of Ayush and ICMR at an inter-ministerial level. It aims to promote high impact research on integrative health to generate evidence in priority areas of national importance in healthcare utilising modern scientific methods. It is a joint effort to establish Ayush-ICMR Centres for Advanced Health Research at AIIMS in phases. Joint efforts will be in place to conduct high-quality clinical trials on identified areas/disease conditions of national importance with promising integrative therapies to generate evidence for wider acceptance, the document added.

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