The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the first pandemics of the 21st Century and it did take quite a few of us by surprise. It has created vastly different levels of hardships across various populace and industries, doctor included!
Homeopaths, who are known for their long history taking, detailed questionnaire, and characteristic white sugar pills (doused with medicines) being dispensed from their clinics had their own share of challenges during the COVID-19 Pandemic.
ETV Bharat Sukhibhava spoke to Dr. Suraj A. Dhirwani,Consultant Homoeopath at “Sunshine Homoeopathy” and founder partner “Techno Medix”, Mumbai, which empowers doctors and healthcare professionals by providing the right Technological solutions.
For years, Homeopaths are known for their extra-long case-taking sessions. The advantage of this detailed history-taking skill was that Homeopaths were quick to adapt to the flow-chart questionnaire specific to COVID-19 and would tend to ask about ‘travel history’, ‘family history’ without skipping a beat. This, coupled with the pre-existing knowledge about the patient, helped differentiate between regular allergy, flu-like illness, and COVID-19.
Many anxious, hypochondriac patients had their worst fears allayed and could breathe easy (literally and figuratively) due to the patience that Homeopaths have towards their patients.
Also Read: Homeopathy in treatment of COVID-19 illness
Traditionally Homeopaths have maintained extensive ‘books’ or case papers of each patients’ clinical history which, as a standard practice, includes quite a few details about their habits, disposition, living space, and previous medical history. This task, which is often tedious and also a contributing factor for the long case-taking sessions, has helped Homeopaths quickly adapt to the call of the patient who had not consulted them in years but suddenly called due to COVID panic.
Homeopaths have been making good use of technology as a tool for decades! The first Patient Management System and Repertorisation software were introduced to Homeopaths as early as the 1990s.
These Patient Management systems, essentially, make the Homeopath enter a lot of data that is of utmost relevance to the patient carries information regarding the prescriptions along with potency, dosage, and repetitions.
For many techno-savvy Homeopaths, this meant just opening their laptop and continuing to work based on phone calls or video calls, establishing a make-shift clinic in their home. The real challenge however was a subject never included in the syllabus when studying Homoeopathy – ‘logistics’. Ensuring delivery of the medicines to the patients spread across the city and often across the country was the real challenge to completing the ‘treatment’ from a Homeopath.
This was overcome by either tapping into the existing knowledge of the fraternity by deploying the best possible courier services, or by dipping into the well of goodwill of fellow brethren and asking the patients to pick up medicines from their colleague, whose clinic was closest to the patient’s residence. This chain was an invaluable networking tool, which further facilitated last-mile connectivity. In its simplest avatar, this was nothing more than a WhatsApp group of like-minded, motivated Homeopaths who devoted many man-hours into selflessly – just connecting the dots.
The calm temperament, attention to detail, inquisitiveness for detailed case-taking coupled with the meticulously maintained case records using various tools of technology, and of course, the support of the fraternity ensured that the Homeopaths could provide the relevant support to the Healthcare system during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As we celebrate World Homeopathy Day, we hope, that in the future, whenever duty calls, Homeopaths will continue to rise to the occasion and provide the support needed not just for the patients but also work alongside their fellow medical brethren from other streams to battle such adversities faced by humanity as a whole.
For your queries contact, Dr.suraj@SunshineHomeopathy.com
