Why in News?

• The Ministry of AYUSH has developed National Ayurveda Morbidity Codes (NAMC), a comprehensive classification of diseases described in Ayurveda as well as Standardized Ayurveda Terminologies.

NAMASTE Portal:

• These have been made available on National AYUSH Morbidity and Standardized Terminologies Electronic Portal (NAMASTE Portal) developed by the Ministry which is available to the public.
• The portal was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of 2nd Ayurveda Day (17^thOctober 2017).
• The portal was developed and is being maintained by the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), the apex body for research in Ayurvedic Sciences, Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India.
• This portal has the potential to revolutionize morbidity statistics data collection and may have a huge impact on the future policy-making decision by bringing to light the contributions of various AYUSH systems in the health care delivery system of the country.
• The key features of the portal include the Morbidity Codes and Standardized Terminologies of all the AYUSH systems for unambiguous reporting, electronic data submission through individual institution login ids, and also an integrated electronic health records (EHR) system for detailed data collection for individual institutions.

Standardization and Quality Assurance:

• For standardization of Ayurvedic diagnostic and treatment protocol, the Central Council of Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS) under Ministry of AYUSH has undertaken a project on Reliability testing and Validation of Ayurveda diagnostic methods in June 2018.
• Under this project, some common disease conditions have been identified and accordingly the pro forma and manual of selected disease conditions is being drafted and validated through scientific methods in a phased manner.
• In the first phase, the disease conditions which have been identified are Kushtha (skin diseases), Kasa, Shwasa and Jwara.
• The first draft of Kushtha (skin diseases) manual as clinical Series-I has been published and for other three disease conditions inter-rator reliability has already been completed and second phase validity is under consideration in collaboration with the academic institutes of national repute.
• Further, the development of pro forma of various other disease conditions has been initiated.
• Various clinical studies are also being conducted following the integrated protocol in a scientific manner.