The Canada India Network Society does it again! CINI 2018 fostered rich dialog and action

The Canada India Network Society works to promote collaborations between India and Canada in health, education, technology and other sectors. CINI 2018, (Canada India Network Initiative), a conference that just ended, was the 3rd gathering of minds to bridge intellectual, business and friendship connections between Canada and India. A rich diversity of participants from both countries attended the 4 day meetings, including provincial Ministers, federal staffers, physicians, researchers, professors and more. The 2 themes of this year's conference were:

integrative health care and

technology.

I was involved in the planning, chairing and championing of the integrative health care sessions. As a longstanding researcher in the field of mind/body health, i am inspired to see the tremendous leaps and bounds we are making in Canada to study and learn more about the potential health benefits of practices such as yoga, ayurveda, meditation and other related systems of health promotion and disease prevention. Experts from both Canada and India noted that people, particularly patients, are gravitating towards natural systems of health care and in India, the government has responded, in the creation of a ministry called AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Siddha, Homeopathy) which is a vehicle to reintroduce these traditional health knowledge systems. In Canada we too are moving along in our creation of education programs for various types of integrative health knowledge and programs in clinics and hospitals that embrace traditional Indigenous systems of healing, acupuncture, herbs and more.

CINI 2018 was not only an enriching meeting of minds but an example of how to organize a collaborative international learning event that produces action items. The organizers took 3 years to bring it to fruition and it promises to be a catalyst in bringing about better health for Canadians and Indians.