Ayush dept plans system to weed out quacks

Worried over the profusion of quacks claiming to practice Indian systems of medicine, the department of Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy (Ayush) will launch a system of registration that will weed out the fakes, the first initiative of its kind in the country.

On Friday, the department will launch its website on which genuine practitioners of Indian systems of medicine can register.  “The website for the department is new and it has unique features. It was done basically to protect the doctors whose register numbers were being misused. But this will not include homeopathy,” said Sathyamurthy Bhatt, president of Karnataka Ayurveda and Unani Practitioners’ Board.

The website offers Ayurveda and Unani practitioners in the state the option to upload their qualification certificates and receive unique bar code, that will set them apart from the frauds who have proliferated to take advantage of the increasing popularity of the Indian systems of medicine

“Doctors registering on the website will be given a date and time to come to the department, where their biometric data such as retina and thumb prints will be taken and will be uploaded on the web version of the certificate,” he explained.

The state has nearly 33,000 practitioners of Ayurveda and Unani way of healing. They will be asked to upload their certificates on the website, after which a unique identification code will also be uploaded. “Patients walking into a clinic where the doctor has put up his certificate, can use a smart phone and scan this identification code on our website which will show if this doctor is genuine or not,” Bhatt said. The tamper-proof technology will cost the department Rs5lakh.

“We have 73 colleges in the state that teach Ayush courses and nearly 3,600 students come out of these colleges every year. Apart from them, we also have 500 to 600 students from post graduate courses. The proposed system will help in bringing transparency in the system,” he said.

The website has been cleared by third party companies approved by the state government. The department will hold a workshop for those who intending to register,” Bhatt said.

@DNA