Indo-Swiss Ayurveda Foundation (ISA)

ACCOMPLISHED ISA PROJECTS

2011 FIRST GLOBAL DATA-BASE FOR AYURVEDA RESEARCH ISA founding members were the initiators of the global free-access database DHARA, online since 2011. All recorded articles originally appeared in international Ayurveda, alternative medicine, science and medical journals. DHARA is the work of the research wing of Arya Vaidya Pharmacy and the fruit of the first MoU that AYUSH signed with a foreign private institute: a tripartite MoU between SAMA-Swiss Ayurvedic Medical Academy, Arya Vaidya Pharmacy (AVTAR) and AYUSH (CCRAS), 2015 SWISS GOVERNMENT ACCREDITED TRAINING PROGRAM IN AYURVEDA MEDICINE FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDENTS. MedVaidya, in line with WHO / AYUSH guidelines and Swiss regulations covers 1140 class room hours of 60' (= 1520 hrs of 45 min.) plus 1800 hours of guided supervised training as well as a clinical internship of minimum 600 hrs. . MedVaidya has been conceptualised and is run by SAMA-Swiss Ayurvedic Medical Academy. Its Indian partner institution is Arya Vaidya Pharmacy (Coimbatore). The syllabus draws as much from the Indian university curriculum (Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery, BAMS) as from the unfathomable depth of the Indian traditional teachings. It is aimed at allopathic trained physicians as well as at persons with no prior training in medicine who wish to become practitioners in Ayurveda medicine with a government recognised diploma in Switzerland. 2012- 2015 TRILINGUAL ACADEMIC WEBSITE A search optimised trilingual academic website has been created in collaboration with SAMA-Swiss Ayurvedic Medical Academy and is online since 2012 in French and since 2015 in English and German. This web site of about 100 pages per language showcases the Swiss regulatory model in practice and provides loads of useful information to the public, to professionals, to scientists, to authorities and journalists. It gives evidence that Ayurveda is a medical and a knowledge system that can be institutionalised and integrated in a public health system through adequate clinical practice, professional training and research. The scientific content will be developed further. 2016 RECOGNITION BY THE INDIAN GOVERNMENT OF THE SWISS REGULATORY MODEL FOR THE GLOBALISATION OF AYURVEDA AS A MEDICAL SYSTEM. ISA's vision since the beginning was that Switzerland's unique legal context and decade long hard work in creating a regulatory model with high standards favor the spread of authentic Ayurveda as a medical system and help India to bequeath one of its greatest legacies to humanity. In 2016 the Swiss model was recognised by the Indian government. On its recommendation ISA President Dr Simone Hunziker was in 2017 awarded with a distinguished oration by the Indian Association for the Study of Traditional Asian Medicine (IASTAM) at the most reputed Indian university, Benaresh Hindu University. Members of the ISA Foundation were invited to promote the model before the international Ayurveda community in key note addresses of national as well as international conferences and congresses (see press file). 2017 LAUNCHING OF AN OFFICIAL INDO-SWISS INTERGOVERNMENTAL DIALOGUE FOR THE PROMOTION OF AYURVEDA AS A MEDICAL SYSTEM. After an official study on Ayurveda in India by the Swiss Embassy in Delhi in 2010 ISA Foundation was ever working towards an intergovernmental dialogue. ISA's interactions in 2015/16 with different Indian ministries as well as the recognition of the Swiss regulatory model have resulted in AYUSH supporting an official Indo-Swiss Round Table on Ayurveda organised by the Indian Embassy in Berne in February 2017 (see press file) Ayurveda being discussed in the summit meetings between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the three successive Presidents of the Confederation of Switzerland between 2015 and 2017 OTHER CONTRIBUTIONS Since its official creation in March 2013 and already before, the ISA Foundation is engaged in various other activities related to its objectives on the national and international level.