There is a need to promote transparent and accurate reporting of clinical cases in Homoeopathy.The homoeopathic knowledge base is supported by data from healthy subjects obtained in homeopathic pathogenetic trials (also called ‘provings’) that need to be further verified and validated in clinical practice. Clinical cases and case series are important components of the latter process. A solid foundation in the form of high quality case reports is therefore an essential cornerstone of the further validation of homeopathic knowledge. There is a relatively high level of complexity and individualization of homoeopathic case-taking, hence cases should be recorded meticulously by the treating physician.

Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy (CCRH) an apex research organisation under Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India presents Homoeopathic Clinical Case Repository (HCCR) portal which is aimed at providing clinicians, researchers, medical students etc. a user platform for entering homoeopathic clinical cases through a predefined standardized template.

Evidence based medicine (EBM) is the conscientious, explicit, judicious and reasonable use of modern, best evidence in making decisions about the care of individual patients. EBM integrates clinical experience and patient values with the best available research information. The practice of evidence-based medicine is a process of lifelong, self-directed, problem-based learning in which caring for one’s own patients creates the need for clinically important information about diagnosis, prognosis, therapy and other clinical and health care issues.

On the contrary, the basis for Evidence Based Homoeopathy (EBH) will be formed by extensive ‘verifications’ of ‘homoeopathic symptoms’ which are the framework on which the concept of patient relief and cure depends for a homoeopathic physician. Such verifications are not simple due to the fact that physicians in this system use varying methodologies and strategies according to their training, expertise and clinical experience. It will be a tedious process to bring in uniformity to the interpretation of symptoms due to the multitude of inter-rater variability factors that arise due to the uniqueness of homoeopathic principles. EBH can only be built on the framework of homoeopathic concept of similarity.For documenting the varied experiences of homoeopathic physicians , development of a repository of treated cases is imperative.

The analysis and mining of data thus populated will serve in developing the HCCR into a first of its kind clinical database not only in Homoeopathy but also in any other alternative system of medicine in India in order to understand treatment trends, prescription trends, demographic trends, morbidity trends, improvement in the quality of life of patients and assessing cure rates of common and rare clinical conditions using homoeopathic intervention. Thus HCCR portal is envisaged to be developed into a reference database for the medical fraternity as well as to the policy makers and regulators to make informed decisions about integration of Homoeopathic medical system into various public health intervention activities.

HCCR portal is envisaged as an educational resource in the field of Homoeopathic research which is offering a high volume of cases in all disciplines of medical systems so that healthcare professionals, researchers and students can easily find clinically important information on common and rare conditions. All submissions shown on the HCCR portal have crossed peer review process.