Bridge over troubled water

At present, there is a global search for the elusive bridge that will help us cross the trouble waters of the pandemic of COVID19. In these testing times, doubts regarding our system of medicine are being raised afresh. A very recent one being a feature written against the entire alternative systems of medicine (including homoeopathy) in a leading newspaper in India.^[1] As the pandemic looms large, there may be more sceptics who will oppose homoeopathy. The onus lies on us, homoeopaths, to demonstrate the scientificity of the system.

The application of homoeopathy in the treatment of epidemic diseases dates back to the time of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, when he recommended the use of Belladonna for treating scarlet fever. In the early 19^th century, the role of homoeopathy in treating various epidemics contributed significantly to its popularity.^[2]

Julian Winston has described an incident about Dr. H A Roberts during the Flu Epidemic of 1918–19. Dr. Roberts who was the physician on the troop ship at that time, using homoeopathy to treat the ship crew, he was able to save all the lives on his ship, when the other ships nearby were asking each other for spare coffins.^[3]

Several recent studies have demonstrated the role of homoeopathy in epidemics in the reduction of disease incidence and control.^[4-6]

This is the time when all homoeopaths must come together, collate the evidences and present for scientific analysis. Individual brilliance will not help, as the attack by the sceptics is never on a homoeopath, but always on homoeopathy. To defend our system, all of us have to come together and present documented, evidence-based data to the world.

Every data or rich clinical material need to be presented in a scientific manner. Not all of us are able to convert our rich clinical experiences into a scientific paper. In this issue, Dr. Prashant Tamboli shares with us the steps of writing a case report. This will serve as a great guide to all who wish to publish their clinical experiences in various peer-reviewed journals of homoeopathy.

In this issue, we also have an interesting case series by Dr. Madhavi Tamboli and Dr. Kumar Dhawale, which demonstrates the role of incorporating the various coping mechanisms with expressions at the mental and physical level in the prescribing totality in children with learning disabilities.

The need of the hour is to refine teaching methodology in our homoeopathic colleges. Dr. Sunil Bhalinge et al. present the findings of a unique educational research in the application of case-based learning (CBL) method to enhance skills, rational thinking, develop the discipline to learn from structured cases and bedside experiences in training post graduate homoeopathic students. The learning from this study will help us extend CBL to all areas of homoeopathic medical education. In this issue, we also have an interesting case report and a book review.

In these troubled times and times of social distancing, we present before you JISH in a new format, I thank our esteemed reviewers, our editorial board, our publishers for their help and all our readers for the support. While I type this, I pray for the safety of each one of you and your family members and the sound of the famous song “Here Comes the Sun” written by George Harrison and sung by the English rock band the Beatles rings in my ears. The song goes like this:

The arrival of the sun always brings anticipation of something new, an opportunity to start afresh and also hope that all will be well. Hope that all of humanity is able to find and cross the bridge over these troubled waters.

* Bridge over troubled water, a popular song written by American songwriter Paul Simon and recorded by the music duo Simon and Garfunkel.