WHO collaborates with Hyderabad-based NIIMH for traditional medicine research, ET HealthWorld

NEW DELHI: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has appointed India’s National Institute of Medical Heritage as a WHO Collaborating Centre (CC) for ‘Basic and Textual Research in Traditional Medicines’. The National Institute of Indian Medical Heritage, Hyderabad (NIIMH) is an institute under the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), Ministry of Health, India. The prestigious recognition will be valid for a period of four years from June 3, a statement from the Ministry of Health said.

Founded in 1956, NIIMH is a unique institution dedicated to documenting and showcasing medical history research in Ayurveda, Yoga Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa, Homeopathy, Biomedicine and other allied medical disciplines in India.

Under the dedicated leadership of Dr Vaidya Ravinarayan Acharya, Director, CCRAS, NIIMH and Head of WHO-CC, this remarkable milestone has been achieved with relentless scrutiny and dedication, the statement said.

“This designation by WHO is an important milestone that reflects our tireless efforts in the fields of traditional medicine and historical research,” said Prof Acharya.

The institute has pioneered various digitisation initiatives for Ayush including the AYUSH Advanced Manuscript Repository (AMAR) portal and has catalogued 16,000 Ayush manuscripts including 4,249 digitised manuscripts, 1,224 rare books, 14,126 catalogues and 4,114 periodicals.

The Exhibition of Historical Traces of Ayurveda (SAHI) portal displays 793 medical historical artefacts, while the Ayurveda e-Books project provides digital versions of classical textbooks.

The National Ayush Morbidity and Standardised Terminology Electronic (NAMASTE) portal collects cumulative morbidity statistics from 168 hospitals, while the Ayush research portal indexes 42,818 published Ayush research papers, according to the statement.

According to a statement, NIIMH houses a collection of over 500 original manuscripts, including rare books and manuscripts dating back to the 15th century, along with a medical heritage museum and library.

The institute also publishes the Journal of Indian Medical Heritage.

More information about the institute can be found on the official website of NIIMH.

There are around 58 WHO-CCs in India across various fields of biomedical and allied sciences.Notably, CCRAS-NIIMH has been ranked as the third WHO-CC in the field of traditional medicine after Ayurveda Education and Research Institute, Jamnagar and Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY), New Delhi.

As the first WHO-CC on “Basic and Textual Studies of Traditional Medicine”, NIIMH has been tasked with assisting WHO in standardising Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Sowa Rigpa terminology and updating Traditional Medicine Module II of the 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11).

Additionally, the WHO-CC will support member states in developing research methods for traditional medicines, the statement said.