Making the Durban University of Technology (DUT) proud is the respected Professor Ashley Ross, who was honoured in October 2019 as the winner of the prestigious MedscapeIndia 2019 Award for Excellence in Homoeopathy.
He was bestowed the major accolade at the 8th Medscape India National Awards, dedicated to ‘Save the Girl Child’ and ‘Women’s Empowerment’, at the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) International Convention Hall in Mumbai.
Professor Ross is an esteemed leader and Specialist – Strategy and Operational Planning: Institutional Planning Unit at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) and is also an Associate Professor.
He is an internationally-regarded expert in the field of homoeopathic pathogenetic trials, and has been the Principal Investigator in an ongoing collaborative research project between DUT and Heel Biological Medicines in Germany since 2012.
Medscape India is a non-profit organisation comprising doctors and like-minded people who voluntarily participate in community-based healthcare projects throughout India, with a specific focus on the provision of healthcare to rural and under-resourced communities. The Medscape India Awards recognises the contributions made by doctors, institutions in the healthcare sector and eminent personalities in social work supporting the ‘Save the Girl Child’ movement, the empowerment of women and community health.
The passionate and dedicated Prof Ross was pleasantly surprised by his win and confirmed that he had been nominated by the respected Dr Jawahar Shah, founder of Mind Technologies, and a pioneer when it comes to connecting health with technology. They have known each other for 21 years. “The way it works is that they get nominations and the top five nominations go to the jury board. There are 21 categories and I was the winner in the homeopathy category. It is a tremendous honour, especially being handed the award by a former Bollywood star, Asha Parekh,” he said.
The event was attended by renowned figures, national and international delegates, healthcare leaders, medical teachers, Government authorities, sports personalities, celebrities and industrialists.
“I think I got the award for a number of things, because there are a few people globally in homeopathic education and I have been involved in homeopathic education for 24 years. At DUT, we have established an internationally-recognised homeopathic curriculum. Only in South Africa and India is there a hybrid curriculum that covers medicine and homeopathy and allows you the legal right to practice as a doctor using homeopathy. My other involvement is in homeopathy research, I am the world authority in homeopathy proving, not in a controlled sense but in an opinion sense,” he said.
Prof Ross stressed that there’s also the community engagement aspect he is passionately involved with.
“I have established five clinics. I have also established the extended curriculum programme which finally allowed us (DUT) to produce African homeopaths. So, what we have succeeded in doing at DUT is that we have produced a whole generation of African homeopaths that can go into the community and make a difference, I think this is a huge feat,” he said proudly.
Nicky Muller, DUT’s Director of Institutional Planning, congratulated Professor Ross on receiving the International Netscape Award in recognition of his engagement in the development of homoeopathic education, as well as for his international reputation in homoeopathic proving and his work done towards raising the profile of homoeopathy, plus providing homoeopathic health care to under-resourced communities.
Dr Madhu Maharaj, Head of Department: Homoeopathy, also congratulated him on his international achievement. “You are indeed a great homoeopathic pioneer and an astute homoeopathic scientist, that deserves honour and accolade for your tireless work in homoeopathy,” she said about Professor Ross.
Pictured: Professor Ashley Ross receiving his award from Dr Sunita Dube, Founder and Chairperson of MedscapeIndia.
Waheeda Peters
