“The Legacy Forward”

The Innovation meet on ” The Legacy Forward” held at Association for Research in Homoeopathy on 4th February 2024. The meeting was attended by 40 plus eminent scientists, researchers, and physicians from different medical systems.

The program began with a moment of silence in the remembrance of Dr. S. S. Apte. Team ARH rejuvenated Dr. Apte sir’s memories to pay tribute to his life and work through AV presentation. Various dignitaries from scientific and medical fraternities and his patients shared their experiences with Dr. Apte.

Subsequently Dr. Swapnil Patne introduced the speakers and their areas of expertise.

Dr. Vrishali Deshmukh (President of ARH), presented on “Hope for orphan diseases through nano-dosage formulations of Homoeopathy”. She demonstrated scope of Homoeopathy in diseases that affect small number of individuals, therefore facing challenges of limited and expensive treatment options and lack of research. She also portrayed the use of Homoeopathy in avians.

The second speaker, Dr. Sandeep Padwale, (Senior Homoeopathic physician, ARH) presented “Retrospective observation of Homoeopathic treatment in Dengue”. He presented the findings of preliminary observation about the study on dengue cases between the period Aug 23 – oct 23.

 The next speaker, Dr. Geetanjali Tomar, (Assistant professor, department of biotechnology, Savitribai Phule Pune University) presented her topic on “Systematic assessment of anticancer potential of Homoeopathic medicines”. She briefly explained the protocol to shortlist the homoeopathic drugs, its potencies and appropriate concentration to see its cytotoxic effects on cancer cell lines.

Dr. Swapnil Patne, (Physician in charge & research Head, ARH) through his topic “Social Medicine for Teenagers” threw a light on growing perplexity in youth. He elucidated through examples of cases from ARH Airoli O.P.D. He acknowledged that albeit the problem is known to the medical community but there is need to develop tools to address social drivers of health & illness. He also explained a few approaches suggested by NEJM journal social medicine series articles to address this problem. The topic was very interesting, so the majority of people participated in discussions for development of community-based activity to provide a unique and context specific needs of teenagers to promote their health. In action plan, ARH decided to start community-based activity for their patients and teenagers in the vicinity of centre. People from interdisciplinary fields assured their support to ARH in this challenging but essential activity for a better society. Soon a group will be formed to take things ahead.

Mrs. Aarvi Prabhughate,( Chief – Plant Clinic at ARH Kotapur Centre) then presented the potential role of Homoeopathic nano formulation in agriculture. She shared her experiences with cultivation of marigold plantation at ARH Kotapur centre. She also presented her proposed comparative study to see the effect of Homoeopathic formulations on growth and yield of tomato plants.

The final presentation was done by Mrs. Priya Patne (In-charge Drug Research Laboratory at ARH) her topic was “Exploring Future Horizons: Proposed research programs by ARH”. In her presentation she emphasized, the Integrative research approach at the institutes level specializing in Physics, Chemistry and cell & molecular biology is needed for unraveling the mechanism of action of Homoeopathic medicines. She explained different methodologies and techniques that can be used to prove homoeopathy as evidence-based medicine.

At the end Dr. Swapnil Patne proposed a vote of thanks with a commitment to pursue the path followed by Dr. S. S. Apte in addressing the problems faced by the community in a holistic way and to take up collaborative research to prove Homoeopathy as an Evidence based medicine.