Dr Bhaswati Bhattacharya committed to make Ayurveda known across the globe

Dr Bhaswati Bhattacharya

Descended from her family ancestry of Ayurvedic and Sanskrit scholars with a biomedically- trained father who was a clinician, scientist and veterinarian, and herbalist mother, Dr. Bhaswati Bhattacharya is trained as a scientist, international public health specialist, primary care clinician and holistic healer.

Dr. Bhattacharya has been working in complementary medical education and practice for almost 15 years. As a licensed primary care physician practicing in underserved areas of New York City, she is board-certified in both holistic medicine and preventive medicine, and teaches and writes in these fields.

Her academic training includes degrees from the University of Pennsylvania; Columbia University; Harvard University and a medical doctorate from Rush Medical College. Her residency training in family practice at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital and community & preventive medicine at Mount Sinai has trained her to work with the underserved. In addition, she has several certifications in holistic healing arts, including nutrition, OMT, aromatherapy, guided imagery and ayurveda. Bhaswati is the recipient of the 1998 American Holistic Medical Association national award and the 2004 AMA Leadership Award for her work in holistic medicine and international health. She has focused her interests on holistic medicine since her PhD work in New York in the late 80’s.

Bhaswati worked at the Office of Alternative Medicine at the NIH in 1994. From 1995 until 1998, she served as the national co-coordinator of the Humanistic Medicine task force of AMSA. She served as the founding medical director of Inner Doorway, a medical publishing company for leading peer-reviewed medical journals in alternative medicines. She served as author and founding co-Principal Investigator and co-author of EDCAM, a NIH-funded grant to AMSA that successfully created a curriculum with 96 experts integrating holistic medicine into medical schools in the US. She served for 5 years on the Board of Trustees of the American Holistic Medical Association and on the Board of Directors of SAPHA, the South Asian Public Health Association. She now serves as the CAM expert as a contributor to Dorland’s Medical Dictionary and is currently the chair of the CAM Advisory Council of the Elsevier medical publishing group. Her work has been featured in a documentary called Healers: Journey into Ayurveda, that premiered worldwide in July 2003 on The Discovery Channel and continues to be shown as one of the channel’s most popular health documentaries.

Dr. Bhaswati Bhattacharya, an active proponent for medical technologies and systems that promote true healing, was awarded the Arogyadham Galaxy Award for Outstanding Services in Global Ayurveda by the Arogyadham Centre in Uttar Pradesh, India, recently.

The honor was bestowed at the Arogyadham Scholarship & Awards Ceremony recently where eight scholars are awarded annually for their achievements. Three scholarships were given to students for outstanding performance in Ayurvedic medical colleges in India: Harshra from Delhi University; Miss Richa from Uttarkand University; and Bhavani Singh Rathore from Udipur Rajasthan University. The five awards were received by practicing physicians and vaidyas or ayurvedic doctors, including Dr. Pradeep Nagrath, Dr. VK Sharma, Dr. Maya Ram Uniyal, Dr. VK Joshi and Dr. Bhattacharya. Dr. Bhattacharya delivered the keynote address at the awards ceremony, entitled “Role of Ayurveda and Yoga in Chronic Diseases.

” The ceremony is organized annually in honor of late Dr. VC Agarwal, a highlyrespected ayurvedic physician, philanthropist, and healer, who established the Arogyadham pharmacy, clinic and publications and the Arogyadham Global Aids Research Foundation, before his death in March 2007.

“Her articulate, authentic and accurate promotion of ayurveda is helping us all, to provide patients with knowledge about healing their bodies and minds,” stated Dr. Rakesh Agarwal, an ayurvedic physician and son of the late Dr. VC Agarwal and currently the director at Arogyadham. “She incorporates the best of both modern medicine and ayurveda and is not afraid to explore the frontiers of healing.”

Dr. Bhattacharya has been an active contributor to the cause of expanding authentic ayurvedic knowledge and education, especially in the US and India. She currently directs the Dinacharya Institute for Wise Medicine, a school for holistic medicine in New York City, which trains health and wellness professionals a basic course in ayurveda and how to integrate ayurveda into American clinical practices.

She has written several creative and technical works in textbooks and journals and magazines focusing on educating and healing the healers. She is currently writing a fiction novel and is creating a visual journey in holistic medicine through her filmmaking company, Betel Nut Productions.

She was selected from over 4000 graduates as the Commencement Graduate Orator at Harvard University in 1993, where she received international coverage for her outspoken views alongside then Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell in a speech on blind traditions and the need for insightful healing as we shape policies.

Dr Bhaswati Bhattacharya committed to make Ayurveda known across the globe Dr Bhaswati Bhattacharya “Her articulate, authentic and accurate promotion of ayurveda is helping us all, to provide patients with knowledge about healing their bodies and minds,” stated Dr. Rakesh Agarwal,

BY RITU PANDEY