Multimedia-based Medicinal Plants Sustainability Management System

Medicinal plants are increasingly recognized worldwide as an alternative source of efficacious and inexpensive medications to synthetic chemo-therapeutic compound. Rapid declining wild stocks of medicinal plants accompanied by adulteration and species substitutions reduce their efficacy, quality and safety. Consequently, the low accessibility to and non-affordability of orthodox medicine costs by rural dwellers to be healthy and economically productive further threaten their life expectancy. Finding comprehensive information on medicinal plants of conservation concern at a global level has been difficult. This has created a gap between computing technologies’ promises and expectations in the healing process under complementary and alternative medicine. This paper presents the design and implementation of a Multimedia-based Medicinal Plants Sustainability Management System addressing these concerns. Medicinal plants’ details for designing the system were collected through semi-structured interviews and databases. Unified Modelling Language, Microsoft-Visual-Studio.Net, C#3.0, Microsoft-Jet-Engine4.0, MySQL, Loquendo Multilingual Text-to-Speech Software, YouTube, and VLC Media Player were used. Keywords: Complementary and Alternative Medicine, conservation, extinction, medicinal plant, multimedia, phytoconstituents, rural dweller

Clinical Decision Diagnosis Support System for Complementary and Alternative Medicine Practitioners in Lifestyle-related Diseases Management

Chronic diseases accounted for 60% of all deaths – corresponding to a projected 36.65 million deaths worldwide in 2007. 2.8% of the world population suffers from diabetes mellitus and it may cross 5.4% by the year 2025. Hypertension is a major burden on health care. Prevalence of lifestyle-related diseases increases. Low accessibility to and non-affordability of orthodox medicine by rural dwellers and their need to keep healthy to be economically productive have led to their dependence on medicinal plants to remedy afflictions. Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) attracts patronage due to patients’ dissatisfaction with conventional health care, a desire for treatment and care that work, good relationship with practitioner, provision of information, a desire for greater control over one’s health, and a desire for cultural and philosophical congruence with personal beliefs about health and illness. Medicinal plants’ threatened sustainability makes adulteration and species’ substitutions reduce their efficacy, quality and safety. It was found that CAM practitioners who participated in this study relied heavily upon knowledge that had 'stood the test of time' (traditional theory and practice) and 'that which worked' (experientially based knowledge) as the basis for clinical decision-making. The safe, effective and efficient delivery of client care is informed primarily by sound clinical decision making. Body mass index (BMI) plays a significant role in the process. Strategies that guide practitioners through the process of decision making may not only foster professional excellence in CAM practice, but also help to improve the quality of client care. Clinical decision-making is a complex process that is reliant on accurate and timely information. Clinicians are dependent (or should be dependent) on massive amounts of information and knowledge to make decisions that are in the best interest of the patient. CAM practitioners of modern time need currency and timeliness on computations of patients’ body mass index, waist circumference and body shape combination; product/therapy data on therapeutic efficacy; product quality and safety; adverse reactions and herb-drug interactions. This paper presents a clinical decision diagnosis system supporting CAM practitioners to effectively treat emerging lifestyle-related diseases with medicinal plants. Keywords: body mass index, complementary and alternative medicine, lifestyle-related diseases, medicinal plants, clinical decision support syste

Medicinal plants-based foods for breast cancer treatment: An ethnobotanical survey and digitization

One million new breast cancer (BC) cases diagnosed yearly yielded over 400,000 annual deaths. About 4.4 million women are living with BC worldwide, while 15 million new cases yearly are estimated by 2020. About 12.15% of women born today would be diagnosed with BC at some time during their lifetime. Nigerian women’s BC lifetime risk of 10% accounted for about 16% of all cancer-related deaths. Nigeria was ill-equipped in dealing with BC complexities. This paper presented an ethnobotanical survey and digitization of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (MAPs)-based foods for effective BC treatment. BC’s risk factors were gathered from General Practitioners. Semi-structured questionnaires were randomly administered, in which 70 Physicians and 500 Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) practitioners were interviewed. Internet searches were performed on the NCCAM, EBSCO, and PubMed databases using BC-related keywords. Specific ethnobotanical data of MAPs having anticancer properties were documented through guided fieldworks, local markets, and CAM practitioners’ homes. A total of 10% of the studied MAPs yielded Adzuki bean, Asparagus, Broccoli, Burdock, Cabbage, Chinese yam, Dandelion, Tomato, Watercress, and Watermelon in effectively treating BC menace. A Populated Multimedia-based Medicinal Plants Sustainability Management System was used to address MAPs’ extinction challenge with the BC-related MAPs. Orthodox BC treatments have devastating effects including temporary infertility. However, eating fruits and vegetables daily significantly reduces BC’s risk. Key words: Breast cancer, complementary and alternative medicine, fruits, medicinal plants, vegetables

Development of a Framework for Collaborative Healthcare Services Delivery

Patients require treatment and care that work, good relationship with practitioner, provision of information, and remaining in control of treatment. Patients need to be empowered to live healthy lifestyles through promotion and the delivery of health information. Seventy-five percentages of Nigeria’s estimated 166million population at 2.87% annual growth rate in 2012 live in rural and underserved areas lacking equitable access to both ICT services and healthcare due to poverty and inadequate health care facilities. A shortage of almost 4.3 million doctors, midwives, nurses, pharmacists, and support workers worldwide is most severe in the poorest countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where they are most needed to direct and guide everyone who becomes ill on the correct use of medications. This is compounded by high illiteracy level, poverty and inadequate Health Care Facilities and personnel. Self-medication offers a way out as people begin to sense the positive benefits of multiplying their options in healthcare. Because of the constraints of distance, costs, and availability of providers (doctors and nurses) in specific areas of medical specialties, the model of treating patients in the general hospital is losing its lustre in favour of dedicated clinics dispersed in the community and remote care in the home. The deterioration of the patient-provider relationship, the overutilization of technology, and the inability of the medical system to adequately treat chronic disease have contributed to rising interest in Complementary and Alternative Medicine. Communication is critical to ensuring delivery of the best possible patient-oriented healthcare among all providers towards achieving equitable access to healthcare. Exchanging information and building communication channels are critical ingredients of biomedical education and research. Today, the patient and the physician should not be alone anywhere in the world as long as here is some form of acceptable technology present. Seamless transmission of medical information through the internet enables teleconsultation of doctors from one corner of the world possible. This paper presents a collaborative framework connecting providers directly to patients for healthcare services delivery in response to the dire need for a framework which would facilitate the development of a national fibre optic backbone infrastructure that ensures high bandwidth availability, universal access, encouragement for private operators to roll out the infrastructure and use of existing government structure as platforms for extending ICT to rural and urban communities. The presented framework facilitates healthcare institutions collaborate and share their resources to provide comprehensive, high-quality and accessible healthcare at an affordable cost. Keywords: Collaboration; Communication; Complementary and Alternative Medicine; Healthcare delivery; Teleconsultatio

Framework for overcoming barriers of complementary and alternative medicine acceptance into conventional healthcare system

Health disparities have been widely recognized as a problem throughout the world. This paper provided a strengthened collaborative virtual framework for overcoming barriers towards accepting complementary and alternative medical practice into conventional healthcare system. Quantitative and qualitative data were gathered with semi-structured questionnaires and interviews from General Practitioners (GPs) with Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) knowledge, CAM Practitioners with biomedicine knowledge, CAM patients, and scholars. 2,760 semi-structured questionnaires exploring knowledge, attitudes, and skills’ barriers to integrative medical collaboration efforts were administered. Focus group discussions were held interviewing GPs, CAM practitioners, and others claiming effective prescriptions. Practitioners’ team meetings, retreats, interaction, and prescription operations were observed. In this study, a videoconferencing-based healthcare services delivery system was developed and implemented for seamless exchange of healthcare information. 2,591 (93.5%) questionnaires representing 657 physicians (23.80%), 997 CAM practitioners (36.12%), 855 patients (30.98%), and 82 healthcare researchers (2.97%) responded, while 169 (6.12%) declined response. Fifty-two percent of the 657 GPs still referred patients for CAM treatments. Patients found complementary approaches more aligned with “their own values, beliefs, and philosophical orientations”. Non-medical acceptance of CAM (43.27%) continued impeding CAM growth in Nigeria. CAM practitioners require evidence-based knowledge towards finding solutions and suggestions for seamlessly integrating CAM with modern healthcare practices. Key words: Collaboration, complementary and alternative medicine, integrated delivery system, videoconferencing

Medicinal and Aromatic Plants’ Productivity and Sustainability Monitoring Framework

Aims: To establish a programmatic framework facilitating all stakeholders harmonize their approaches and methodologies in ensuring sustainable management of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants. Study Design: Combination of semi-structured interviews, questionnaire, and direct observation research methods. Place and Duration of Study: Selected towns and villages in South Western States of Nigeria between January 2010 and June 2012. Methodology: ‘Participatory approach‘ adopted to explore individual perceptions, values and attitudes through in-depth interviewing and administration of semi-structured questionnaires with open-ended pertinent questions for all stakeholders‘ joint inputs. 413 stakeholders (General Practitioners with Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) knowledge, CAM practitioners with biomedicine knowledge, pharmacists, MAPs consumers, and community members), 127 Parks and Gardens government officials, 58 conservation scholars/researchers, and 14 legal practitioners on MAPs conservation were interviewed to perform stakeholder analysis. Model-driven engineering tools were used to create the static behaviour aspects of MAPs management. A logistic productivity and sustainability potential of a village medicinal plants harvesting was simulated with written software. Results: CAM practitioners demanded appropriate information on the sustainable use of MAPs. Regulatory/government body ensured stakeholders‘ compliance with the laws governing harvesting of MAPs, while reducing or avoiding policies/political changes that could result in MAPs‘ loss. Doctors/nurses showed interest seeking integration of conventional medical practice with MAPs-based therapies. Pharmacists expressed interest exploring MAPs for new therapeutics. Scholars/researchers demanded research grants/funding from governments and their research findings‘ implementation. Conclusion: Coordination among different stakeholders, significant involvement of the parks management, improvement in national education standards, and a legal framework that provides a basis for co-management agreements that constitute critical success factors needed to implement viable and sustainable conservation agreements within the program. MAPs‘ productivity and sustainability demand individual and collective responsibilities from all stakeholders for better management of ecosystem and public health in a viable option using a participation model. Keywords: Biodiversity; conservation; framework; healthcare; logistic growth model; medicinal and aromatic plant; productivity; sustainabilit

An Ethnobotanical Study of Plant Species Used for Medicine by the Eegun Indigenous Tribal Group of Lagos State, Nigeria

The ethnobotanical study of plant species used for medicine by the Egun indigenous tribal group of Lagos State, Nigeria was undertaken with a view to assess the valuable plant species in the area and their methods of preparation. In the recent time, there have been a lot of ethnobotanical studies conducted among the varying ethnic compositions in Nigeria, but a gross dearth of such studies abounds among the Eegun ethnic composition. Several communities were selected, among which 10 respondents were randomly interviewed with the aid of a semi-structured questionnaire guide. Even more, in the LGA, a major market (Badagry market), was chosen where 5 botanical vendors were interviewed on the plant parts sold. A semi-structured questionnaire matrix was used to interview the respondents. All the interviewed were focused, conversational and two-way in communication. Group interviews were conducted in each community to established group consensus on the individual responses provided. The results revealed that a total of 44 plant species, belonging to 38 families, were observed to be valued for medicine and health maintenance. The respondents’ indigenous knowledge on these species revealed that diverse diseases were managed with the identified plant species. The parts of the plants used varied, as well as the methods of preparations which were simple, as well as the mode of utilization. Results obtained from the test on the abundance of the identified plant species used in the present study revealed that 7% of the identified species were very abundant, 41% were abundant, 41% were frequent, while 2% of them were rare. Adequate protection of medicinal plant resources through conservation in their natural reserves is recommended