Arya Vaidya Pharmacy (AVP) Research team has now developed an online information technology tool titled ‘Dhara’ which provides information on ayurveda in a quick and easy search format.

Dhara is an acronym for “Digital Helpline for Ayurveda Research Articles”. The search tool provides access to published results of conducted on ayurvedic ingredients and treatment among others. So far there has been no database on Ayurveda in electronic format and this is a first online indexing system for Ayurveda researchers, according to AVP, Dr Ram Manohar, director, AVP Research Foundation told Pharmabiz.

It is not just a compendium of herbal plants but comprises of Ayutexts which are Ayurveda articles created on similar lines that of the international journal PubMed. The initiative was carried out with a funding of Rs.10 lakh from Central Council for Research in Ayurveda and Siddha (CCRAS).

There are original graphical texts depicted of Sushruta Samhita, Ashtanga Hrdayam, Charaka Samhita and Sarangadhara Samhita. Users can access the commentaries for various verses and texts given in the books.

Another offering by AVP is the Clinical Documentation System which can be used by hospitals to record their ongoing clinical practice. It is a single source of practical based clinical outcomes available free of cost that can be used by practising Ayurvedic physicians either in private or in hospitals.

Since ayurvedic physicians document diagnosis and treatment in a limited format, not amenable to collation and analysis, AVP provides a standard format to authenticate each patient’s diagnosis and treatment besides update the same during each visits of the patient. The tool also provides necessary flexibilities including side effects seen during the treatment. It also enables collation and analysis of the data under different pre-decided headings,” said Dr Manohar, who is one of the members of the team who led the project.

A pilot of this tool was tested for over five years at AVP’s hospital at Coimbatore and also tested at centres including National Institute of Ayurveda, Jaipur. The revised IT Tool has a version for use by individual practising physicians which is provided free of cost, he said.

AVP has an IT tool version to document data of large number of patients examined by many physicians in a hospital which is based on payment basis. As a gesture to mark one decade of research contribution in Ayurveda, this is being made available with 80 per cent discount to interested hospitals 2013-end. This would help generate useful onsite data similar to phase IV study commonly adopted in pharmaceutical drug development. It will help generate safety and efficacy data on ayurvedic treatments are the procedures undergo on patients.

Efforts are on to develop IT tools and databases offered on specific subscriptions/ payment basis providing information on specific diseases, herbal formulations and treatment modalities, said Dr Manohar.