DR Samuel Hahnemann discovered homeopathy 225 years ago in 1796 in Germany. At that time, there were only 200 drugs available. But today, there are 12,000 basic remedies available which are part of an international pharmacopoeia established by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
In 1864, the first British pharmacopoeia was released. The European Commission established European pharmacopoeia in 1964. Every three years, new versions in English and French are printed. The Indian pharmacopoeia was established by executive orders of the Government of India in 1956, in connection with the Indian Drug and Cosmetics Act of 1940.
Advent in India
Homeopathic remedies were first initiated in India around 19th century through the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh of Punjab and quickly spread throughout the country. These remedies were especially popular in Bengal and Mahendra Lal Sircar was the first Indian to practice homeopathy.
Pharmacopoeial benchmarks enhance the purity and efficacy of prescribed medicines by establishing analytical techniques and adequate limits for examining and assessing active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), excipients, and finished products. While the manufacturing of homeopathic medicines has been standardised and is continuously being upgraded, homeopathic services have moved from manual record-keeping to digitalisation.
Digitalisation boons
According to the Institute of Medicine’s (IoM) research study ‘To Err is Human,’ medication errors cause an estimated 44,000 preventable deaths in the United States of America alone. Of these, around 7,000 casualties are due to illegible shoddy writing of doctors in hospitals. There are no pharmacist courses available specific to reading prescriptions.
Prescription errors in medicine are increasing by the day. Therefore, the necessity to digitalise prescriptions is the need of the hour. We set up electronic case records at Dr. Batra’s way back in 1982.
Over the years, digitalisation has grown to 24×7-live connectivity across multiple geographies and locations. This allows for patient reviews and second opinions by senior doctors across the world. Electronically generated prescriptions also do away with prescription errors. As a matter of fact, the growth of electronic prescriptions is projected to reach $4 billion by 2026.
Treatment challenges
Due to the personalisation and individualisation of homeopathic treatment, the task of getting the right remedy for a patient has been a difficult one. For example, there could be over 200 remedies for a simple headache. Variations of locations and sensations make the job of a homeopath more challenging.
Twenty years ago, software was developed to identify ninety thousand different permutations and combinations of a single disease. One can now get the top 10 remedies for any disease at the click of a button. This narrows down the homeopath’s choice to select the right remedy based on his experience. This ensures better patient outcomes as compared to the ‘hit and miss’ methods used by homeopaths earlier.
