The first U.S.-India Workshop on Traditional (raditional) Medicine (March 3-4, 2016) began in New Delhi. The Workshop was inaugurated by Minister of State for AYUSH (Independent Charge) and Health & Family Welfare, Sh. Shripad Yesso Naik.
The Workshop is being organized under the auspices of the first U.S.-India Health Dialogue held in September, 2015 in Washington, D.C. This effort underscores the discussions between the U.S. President and the Indian Prime Minister to encourage bilateral dialogue on traditional medicine.
In this two-day workshop, participants will share current traditional medicine therapies and practices for cancer in U.S. and India. They will review available evidence for AYUSH products and interventions, which could reduce pain/morbidity from cancer treatments and improve the quality of life.
Scientists will explore opportunities to collaborate on mutually-identified research in the areas of natural products, palliative care and other support studies. Professional training and scientific exchanges will be an important aspect of this cooperation.
The constructive collaboration between India and U.S. in this field is important for incorporating more scientific inputs from both sides in Traditional Medicines which can help mainstreaming AYUSH systems in patient health care across the globe.
India is also collaborating with World Health Organization (WHO) in the area of Traditional Medicine which will help in achieving international acceptability and positioning of AYUSH systems.
Workshop supports the important deliverable from the President Obama-Prime Minister Modi Joint Statement and U.S.-India Health Dialogue, where both India and the U.S. agreed to explore further potential areas of mutual collaboration on Indian Traditional Medicine.
This meeting demonstrates the commitment of HHS to support bilateral cooperation on cancer and traditional medicine research, with science at the cornerstone.
This is a great opportunity to bring to the table from the US side NCI and NIH expertise in laboratory and clinical evaluation of traditional medicine and from the Indian side an impressive commitment to building the evidence base for traditional Indian medicine.
The U.S. delegation visited several Indian institutes – Benares Hindu University, Jamia Hamdard University, All India Institute of Ayurveda and Medanta – The Medicity, to learn first-hand how Traditional and Modern Medicine co-exist for patient-care.
Nearly 175 participants including experts related to both traditional systems and modern medicine, biologists, and researchers from India and the U.S. will take part in the two day Workshop.
Representatives from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Global Affairs (OGA), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI), and U.S. academic institutions will interact with their counterparts from the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH), and Indian research institutes and universities, in New Delhi during the workshop.
These discussions will be strengthened at the next U.S.-India Health Dialogue this year in India.