According to Ayurveda, health is not only the absence of disease but it is a state of balance of Body-Mind-Spirit. Ayurveda works to bring this state of balance in the individual through a continual process of achieving and maintaining a dynamic balance in all aspects of life through the means of comprehensive natural therapies that are highly customized to suit the individuals’ current energies or imbalances.  

The goal of Ayurveda is not only to heal the disease and reestablish balance but more importantly to prevent disease and to promote holistic and optimal health.

Ramanath Padmanabhan, Director, and Co-founder, AyuRythm,  has over 24 years of experience in the high technology industry which includes product management, business development, strategic planning, technology management.

Abhilesh Gupta, Co-Founder, and Director, AyuRythm, is an aeronautical engineer with over two decades of experience in different industries and works globally in a management capacity for larger companies in the sector.

Sandeep Acharya, Co-Founder and Director, AyuRythm, he is an engineer and an MBA, having a decade of experience in the field of data analytics, with expertise in areas of business intelligence, statistical modeling, and end to end analytics landscape setup.

AyuRythm is redefining personalized holistic wellness. It is the world's first complete digital solution for personalized holistic wellness based on Ayurvedic principles that work on any smartphone.  

AyuRythm - world's first digital solution based on Ayurvedic principles

Ramanath explains how AyuRythm is the world's first completely digital solution for personalized holistic wellness based on Ayurvedic principles, “Ayurveda recommendations are based on the concept of imbalance. Imbalance means the onset of diseases. An imbalance is a difference between the ideal body constitution and the current body constitution. This measurement usually requires face to face interaction with ayurvedic counselors, answering hundreds of questions followed by visual and physical examination. Following these counselors would give a long list of personalized recommendations of yoga, meditation, breathing exercise in manual form. With AyuRythm the whole manual process is replaced by a digital user experience. Users answer 30 questions one time to determine the ideal body balance. Then they take 30-second pulse diagnostic tests by placing the index finger on a smartphone camera. Based on the imbalance AyuRythm provides personalized recommendations of yoga, meditation, breathing exercise,s and diet using the extensive digital content library it has developed. Users can further personalize a health care goal for example weight loss, stress reduction, etc,” he says.

Ayurveda is the last frontier to be digitized

Ramanath explains his motivation to launch AyuRythm, “There were many reasons:

1. Traditional wellness like Ayurveda offers a huge market opportunity and is growing rapidly. However, this is the last frontier to be digitized. We founders felt that with digitization pervading all aspects of life, digital Ayurveda could be the next big thing.
2. We as founders could not but help notice that there were large numbers of people who hated calorie counting and bodybuilding but still aspired to look good and stay healthy. We then evaluated the traditional Indian method of Ayurveda as a way to address the need of this market segment.
3. People find it difficult to get authentic curated information on Ayurveda in digital form. Removing information barriers with respect to Ayurveda and making it easy the way Ayurvedic wellness is consumed was an aspirational goal for us. 
4. Bringing a scientific approach so that consumers trust Ayurveda more and drive adoption beyond the believer segment was also another reason,” he says.

Integrative healthcare is a promising trend worldwide

Ramanath throws light on the subject of Ayurythm being instrumental in the betterment of the Indian Healthcare industry, “Integrative healthcare is a promising trend worldwide, not just in India but worldwide. The Healthcare industry is looking at integrative wellness for better patient outcomes at a lower cost. This is true for post-operative care (cardiovascular, Cancer care) and chronic disease management which forms the major disease burden to the government, insurance, and consumers. To scale these best practices evidence-based technology platforms will become crucial. AyuRythm has built the digital glue which it believes will play a critical part in this future,” he says. Abhilesh adds, “These alternative methods and integrative methods of medicine are our main mainstream subjects. Now, worldwide, you know, all the hospitals or the stakeholders within the healthcare industry have realized that it has to be offered together. For example, HCG hospital, healthcare global, which is the largest chain of cancer hospitals in India, they have this integrative oncology department. So, after the cancer treatment is given to the patient, they feel, nauseated, restless, cannot eat or sleep. So that's where they bring in this Ayurveda to complement the ongoing treatment with traditional methods of medicine, whereby, as they suggest to them Yoga asanas, pranayama, the right foods, some of these herbs, which can complement the ongoing treatment. And, and if you see a large chain of hospitals today are also integrating Ayurveda in some way or the other in their offerings in the healthcare space now,” he says.

IT and AI - the future of healthcare

Ramanath talks on the subject, “AI will play (and is already playing) a big role in healthcare. AI and healthcare workers will work in tandem for better health outcomes. However, within that, there are many interesting sub-trends - 

• AI only

• AI-first with a doctor - Apple watches detecting arrhythmia and informing doctors or Google detecting a pandemic and providing inputs to public health are good examples of AI-first doctor’s next approach.

• AI assisting doctors - There are many examples of AI assisting doctors in driving better clinical decisions. Robotic process automation for a high-value administrative function is becoming commonplace freeing doctors from mundane chores. Tools to assist doctors to perform surgery planning, as well as to conduct surgery, are also good examples.

Success or failure here not only depends on ROI, the effectiveness of the technology but also how easy it is to adapt to AI-driven workflows. Though there are many experiments for AI only (or AI replacing doctors) I don't think society, as well as the medical community, is ready for it yet. Also, supposedly, a mobile phone can tell you your score, and actually, it forces you to go and take a test, you can go to any neighborhood lab and take a test and find out. So that's the sort of, you know, usage model in which we are very, very fascinated about this is a part of our roadmap as well,” he says. Sandeep presents his views, “Whatever we are talking about is health care, which majority is sick care. So I think we are starting; to take one step back where technology can help you as per your mind and body rhythm. We are talking about that personalization level where we are saying that what is good for you may not be good for the other person. Prevention is better than cure so you don't go into the sick care, get to know what is good and bad for you, and follow that trend using technology,” he says.

(Edited by Rabia Mistry Mulla)