Offer An Article

Pandemic Latest News

India’s first heart healthcare map

Heart disease is India’s most common cause of death, with 28.1 percent of all deaths in the country resulting from some manner of cardiac condition. 

Heart data concept. Copyright: tribalium123 / 123RF Stock PhotoAs heart disease is such a prominent condition, any information that can be gained on risk factors that may better prepare the healthcare system is vital. To this end, Apollo Hospitals and Abbott are working towards building the country’s first cardiac registry.

Apollo Hospitals is adopting Abbott’s High Sensitive Troponin-I blood test technology to screen otherwise healthy people for risk of developing heart diseases. The screening process will be used to establish a database of cardiac risk data that will better enable healthcare providers to deal with cardiac patients.

“Over the last decade, data has been central to improving the standard of care across the world. By setting up a national cardiac registry in India, we aim to collect invaluable data that would enable us [to] improve cardiac care and save a number of lives,” said Sangita Reddy, joint managing director of Apollo Hospitals.

Setting up cardiac registries in the US has helped hospitals and physicians improve the quality of care provided to the patients, according to the American Heart Association. Likewise preliminary trials of the programme have shown success in Apollo Hospitals in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata.

The trials identified many individuals involved in the studies that would have otherwise been left undiagnosed. Notably, many of those diagnosed were below the age of 45, potentially allowing for far earlier diagnosis and, thus, better treatment outcomes. The individuals were then grouped into low, medium and high risk categories based on results.

Dr Jaganathan Sickan, senior associate medical director of Diagnostics at Abbott, noted the reach of the programme; “Since the High Sensitive Troponin-I blood test will be included in routine check-up packages for patients with health profiles that indicate heightened risk of heart attacks, more than 800,000 patients will be screened at participating Apollo centres and added to the registry every year.”

By mapping the individuals who may be at heightened risk of heart disease, treatment outcomes for those individuals may be improved. However, the programme has more far-reaching effects. 

By gathering data on such vast numbers of individuals with risks for heart disease, major insights can be gained into prevention strategies against the condition. By analysing specific aspects of lifestyle such as diet and physical activity level, as well as comorbidities that commonly occur in those with high risk status, more can be done to reduce such risk factors in others. Overall, the programme may not only help in treatment, but also in reducing overall numbers of those affected by heart disease.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

%d bloggers like this: