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Opportunities & Difficulties in Proving & Documenting ISM’s
Effectiveness

The frameworks of certification and standardisation of healthcare, until very recently, have
favoured allopathy in the formal systems of healthcare, and the remnants of this monopoly
are still evident. The lack of formalised systems for ISMs has also, over the decades, created a
whole new market for informal, unqualified practitioners who have exploited the opportunity
to their personal benefit, furthering the sense of distrust in these methods. Moreover, the
methods of documentation of the outcomes and practices in alternative healthcare are highly
fragmented and inconsistent, partly due to the huge diversity of regional, linguistic and cultur-
al differences of their interpretations. This makes it difficult to integrate the different forms in
their usage or to recognise the value in their differences.

‘...the need for accreditation and certification of traditional healing practices requiring exten-
sive codification of folk practices. Also, efforts and strategies are needed for sustaining and
expanding the knowledge base of traditional medicine for effective use.’ (Rudra 2017)

Visual and oral live documents that are linguistically inclusive and available through a uniform
source would be of great value to help build universal trust and support for the ISM. A need to
formalise practitioner and patient profiles and live visual health records, while ensuring the
privacy and security of the users is just as essential in combating the cycle of fraud and
distrust, while serving as a non-proprietary, cost-effective resource for further studies on ISM.
A holistic integration of the benefits of standardisation and respect for the individual beauty
in each system must be recognised at all stages of creating such live documents and records.