Welcome to the fascinating session of Docscopy where we get glimpses into the life, career and overall journey of senior doctors. This time Medbound Times is charmed to have this session with Dr. Pravin Jain, BHMS, MD (Homeopathy) about his life, professional journey, and pediatric homeopathy.
Dr. Pravin Jain is a Homeopath and a Director of HomeoCARE, a chain of homeopathy clinics. He has done outstanding work in pediatrics using his knowledge of Homeopathy.
Dr. Pravin Jain is inspired by his special interest in Child Psychology and can handle pediatric cases easily. He is not only a homeopathic doctor but also an enthusiastic writer. His book- “Essentials of Pediatrics" is helping thousands of homeopaths all over the world to deal with pediatric cases successfully. His passion for his work over the last 29 years gave him recognition as a ‘Homeopathic pediatrician'.
This DocScopy session between Medbound Times (Parul Soni) and Dr. Pravin Jain gives us various glimpses of the interesting journey of Dr. Pravin Jain’s life so far.
Parul Soni: Please tell us about your professional journey and life so far.
Dr. Pravin Jain: My professional journey is almost 29 years of homeopathy practice. I started my practice in 1994. I graduated from the prestigious homeopathic college in Mumbai CMPH Medical College. After that, I started my practice in the center of Mumbai i.e. Matunga. I was also a part of the faculty of Predictive homeopathy, an organization run by Dr. Prafull Vijayakar. I did my MD in Organon from Foster Development's Medical College.
Parul Soni: Sir, please elaborate on Organon.
Dr. Pravin Jain: When I started my practice it was very easy to prescribe to my patients. The first prescription is never a problem for any homeopath. Problems arise after a remedy is given and a patient comes for a follow-up. In the follow-up session, the second prescription is very important. Hence, I was very much interested in Organon as it provides clues about how to manage your practice, and how to handle patients in follow-ups. When a patient with any disease comes to you after the first prescription, it's very challenging to give him a second prescription depending on his condition.
Making follow-ups work and doing the second prescription i.e. ‘What next?’ is very important to me. To get answers to all my ‘What next?’ questions I chose ‘Organon’ for MD.
Dr. Pravin Jain, BHMS, MD
Parul Soni: You have 4 branches of your clinic and your focus is on Pediatric cases. Can you please tell us how you handle all these things?
Dr. Pravin Jain: During my initial days of practice, I saw many pediatric cases and it is very challenging for every homeopath to handle such cases. That time while finding out remedies for my own daughter, I developed an interest in pediatrics. I started going deeper into pediatrics practice. After getting good results in pediatrics I thought to share my knowledge with my colleagues. So, I wrote my first book- “Essentials of Pediatrics” in 2003. It was appreciated all over the world. Homeopaths who were struggling to find answers in the case of pediatrics found this book very useful.
After I got success in pediatrics, one of my colleagues suggested that we should start a ‘Pediatric Homeopathic Clinic.’ That's the way we first started this specialized pediatric homeopathic clinic in 2006 under the brand name "HomoeoCARE.” In all our branches of the clinic we have a specialised area called ‘Child Observation Room (COR).’ This is kind of a small play area where a lot of toys are kept and the child is exposed to all those toys to observe his natural reaction.
In the initial days of my practice when a child came to me for treatment he used to touch various things kept in my cabin. It was very difficult for me as I had to restrain the child from touching the things. Pediatric cases become very easy when we let a child express his emotions naturally. In a normal set-up clinic, it's become very difficult to let the child express themselves naturally. So, we designed this special area called COR where all kinds of stuff like animal toys, play guns, and books are kept. When a child is placed in this area, we observe his natural behavior with toys and record it. We then give prescriptions based on our observations.
Though today many hospitals have this kind of facility, back then in 2006 it was a very unique concept.
Parul Soni: Sir, I came to know that your daughter is also practicing with you. Is she your junior or colleague?
Dr. Praveen Jain: My daughter (Nitya Jain) is completing her education. I don’t consider anyone a junior. I have this philosophy that I can learn from everybody. Also, I didn’t learn pediatrics from books only but my little patients taught me this. It is very interesting that I have my daughter with me because she shares her experiences of college with me and current trends. We also have arguments over some topics but I am very happy that she has joined me. She is now an intern and in the next two months she will complete her internship. In the evening, she joins me in the clinic every day. She was the inspiration for me to go deeper into pediatrics. That’s why my publication company was also named after her i.e. ‘Nitya Publication.’
Parul Soni: It’s been 29 years that you are practicing homeopathy. What interesting and motivating thing about homeopathy made you choose this profession?
Dr. Praveen Jain: Frankly speaking I did not choose this profession. Most of homeopaths choose this profession just because they don’t get admission for MBBS. I am one of them. Believe me, before joining the college I didn't even have any idea about homeopathy. I have never seen those pills either. When I joined the college back in 1988, homeopathy wasn’t so famous. So, in my first year of college, I was completely not interested. But from the second year onwards I saw few results and more so I saw Dr. Vijayakar, who was there as a visiting faculty in the government medical college. He used to prescribe with such ease and the results were visible. I was very fortunate that I joined CMPH College because all the professors there were so brilliant and motivating. They always encouraged us to practice homeopathy. Hence, second year onwards I changed my mind and shifted it completely towards homeopathy.
It was against my parent's wish to choose allopathy. I was really fortunate that I have professors like Dr. Vijayakar, Dr. Shankaran, Dr. Nimesh Mehta, Dr. Kamlesh Mehta, Dr. Devadika, Dr. Shukla, and many more. They all used to teach ‘Organon’ fantastically. I am sorry that I have mentioned very few names but all my teachers were very good. The motivation there was very good.
In my batch, there were 30 boys and the rest were girls. Almost 80% of my batchmates are practicing homeopathy and they all are doing very well. And our batch was considered a ‘very good batch.’ And most of my colleagues are still practicing homeopathy which is a little different from the trend we have now.
Parul Soni: What were the most common challenges when you started your practice? What did you face?
Dr. Praveen Jain: ‘Getting patients’ was a big challenge for me during the initial period. Even my parents asked me whether I would be able to earn my bread and butter by practicing homeopathy. The initial three years were very difficult as we didn’t get enough patients. But my colleagues, and friends were very supportive. We were sailing the same boat as they were also not getting the patients. We used to call and tried to build confidence in each other. Slowly things got better and our practice started. Actually, we had 17 branches of our clinic in India but during covid, it became very difficult to travel over those places. Hence, I shared those branches with my colleagues and we divided them. Now I am only handling the branches in Mumbai.
Parul Soni: What were the iconic or interesting cases that left an impression on your mind? Do you remember any such case?
Dr. Pravin Jain: Most challenging part for me was handling cases of disability disorders like autism. My first case was very challenging. The parents who came to me were from very good and rich families. Once a child's mother told me about the diagnosis of PDD. This was the case in 1998. She told me that her child was diagnosed with PDD. But then that mother only told me that it is a Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) and did not give any history. The child was very restless and hyper.
I was not getting the required concentration to understand the case. Then I told that mother to take her child home and come the next day alone to discuss the case history. That mother did not come to my clinic the next day. Then I got to know that she went to Singapore for her child’s treatment. This case made me study autism in-depth and after that, I handled some cases of autism successfully.
When I compared the results of homeopathic treatment with allopathic one in the case of autism. I realized that homeopathic results were better. I started my journey to learn more about autism.
Now our clinics have special procedures for autistic patients. Until now we have recorded about 900 cases of autism and soon we are publishing statistics about its results.
Parul Soni: Are doing more work or research about autism?
Dr. Pravin Jain: Yes. I am writing a book on autism. It’s proper systematic research work. I am just analyzing the success and failure of cases of autism that I handled in the past fifteen years. We have video records of all those 900 cases that came to our clinic. I can proudly say that our HomoeoCARE clinics are completely paperless in entire India. From 2005, all our clinics became paperless and all the cases here are digitally scanned. So, we have all the data stored digitally. And using this data I am going to write a book on autism management.
Parul Soni: Oh! I am an avid reader and I am looking forward to it.
Parul Soni: Were there any disappointments during your career where you felt that things could have been better?
Dr. Pravin Jain: Many…!!! I can’t pinpoint one. There were many failures during my career like the previously mentioned autism case. But I believe that disappointments and failures are your best teachers. If I listed down my disappointments and achievements then my disappointment list will be greater than my achievements. But those disappointments helped me to improve myself.
Parul Soni: Tell us about any achievement that made you very proud and happy.
Dr. Pravin Jain: I like to sum up my achievements by saying ‘Charity begins at home.’ We are four brothers so in total we have eight kids in our house. The eldest one is 27 years old today. For the last 27-28 years not any one of those 8 kids has taken allopathic medicines. The allopathic medicine we hardly used was Crocin for all 8 kids. It is my biggest achievement that I could prevent, treat and manage my family with homeopathy. In my house, the first 3 older children were vaccinated but as soon as I gained confidence about vaccination I did not vaccinate other children. My youngest one is not vaccinated. Talking on a public platform is ok but managing your family without any allopathic intervention is very difficult and I managed to do this. This is absolutely my biggest achievement.
Parul Soni: Sir, taking allopathic medicines is a personal choice. But we have always heard that vaccination is very essential. And that is a golden standard set by our government also. So, how can you medically justify not giving vaccines to your kids?
Dr. Pravin Jain: This is a very controversial and difficult topic. Personally, I don't believe in vaccination.
Parul Soni: Did you get covid vaccine or not?
Dr. Pravin Jain: We are a traditional joint family of 18 and none of us have taken covid vaccine.
Parul Soni: Then how do you justify immunology? No vaccination is a very new concept to me. I have read that US citizens mostly denied vaccination against covid. Immunology works on the principle of antibody-antigen reaction. Vaccination helps to create an immune response. Then how does the immune system work without vaccination?
Dr. Pravin Jain: Actually we can have a one-day seminar on this but it will be inconclusive. This is a very controversial topic.
Parul Soni: What is your goal for the next 2-3 years?
Dr. Pravin Jain: My goal for the next 2-3 years or say next 10 years is to slow down and share my knowledge by writing down books about my experiences in the past 30 years. Writing a book requires more energy and financially is not rewarding. In the end, you get a lot of criticism. Still, I want to write more books in the next 10 years. My 3 books are helping homeopaths in their practice and hence I want to dedicate my next 10 years to writing. I would also like to encourage my colleagues to write about their experiences and knowledge.
Parul Soni: What is your message for budding professionals in the medical field?
Dr. Praveen Jain: Nowadays I am seeing that youngsters are not very keen to join the medical field as they think that this profession will not provide them with more financial freedom as other fields do. And this is very true. Now I myself find it very difficult to convince people to join this field. But I like to advise the next generation that this field does not provide you with more financial freedom but it will give you the satisfaction of saving others life which no other field can give you. When you treat a patient then the whole family of the patient remembers you and it gives you blessings which are incomparable. In other fields, you may achieve a lot of wealth but nobody will remember you. Money is not everything. The medical field is the only field that touches and changes the lives of people. It’s the only field which gives you a lot of recognition and respect in society. Even a small treatment for fever can earn a huge respect for you from the patient's family. People like me who have been practicing for so many years feel very happy that we have changed many lives.
Parul Soni: What do you do in your free time or do you ever get free time?
Dr. Pravin Jain: I watch a lot of movies. Compulsorily I watch one movie every day.
Parul Soni: What! Everyday???
Dr. Pravin Jain: Yes, every day. It gives me energy. I watch all kinds of movies. My family laughs at me because I can watch Bollywood, Hollywood, and Tollywood movies also. I can watch movies with subtitles when I don’t know the language. That is the thing that rejuvenates me.
Parul Soni: Talking about movies, If your life were a movie then what would you name it?
Dr. Pravin Jain: I would like to be a ‘Rancho’ in the movie ‘3 Idiots’ where you don’t chase after a degree but you chase the knowledge.
Parul Soni: What would be the only meal that you can have everyday?
Dr. Pravin Jain: Pav Bhaji (Indian street food)
Parul Soni: Ohh!! Spoken like a true Mumbaikar. What is your special talent other than homeopathy?
Dr. Praveen Jain: I have a passion for computers and software. In the next 10 years, I would like to have software that will help homeopaths. The software which we are using today are very primitive compared to evolved technology. I would love to incorporate new technology in homeopathy.
