For a long time, early risk identification has been a key pillar of heart health management. There is a substantial emphasis on screening and early identification of hypertension or diabetes, which are major risk factors for heart diseases. A large share of people living with cardiovascular risk factors are either not diagnosed, not receiving treatment, or unable to achieve sustained control. The INDIAB study estimates that there are 315 million patients with hypertension and 101 million patients with diabetes. In terms of treatment to targets only 7.9% of those with hypertension and 24.8% with diabetes is controlled. Treatment and control often fail because patients struggle to stay in care, have difficulty accessing care and maintain compliance.
India’s screening efforts are monumental and the results staggering. As of February 2026, more than 408.7 million people have been screened for hypertension under the National Programme for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases, including 70.1 million diagnosed and 55.7 million receiving treatment. The challenge now is to move beyond identification to ensure patients start treatment, remain in care, and ultimately achieve control. This is where digital health can play a major role by expanding access while strengthening different stages of cardiovascular care, which is technically called the continuum of care.
Digital health can help when it is designed to cater to all levels of the care pathway. For example, a high blood-pressure reading should lead to clinical assessment, accurate diagnosis, right treatment, and regular monitoring. Digital tools can connect these steps through remote monitoring, communication with healthcare providers, and timely follow-up. This is particularly valuable for chronic conditions, where outcomes often depend less on a single clinical encounter and more on what happens between visits.
Substantial evaluation of digital tools with task shifting has been carried out by us and others. These include electronic health records, clinical decision support systems (CDSS) and telemedicine. When implemented by trained staff who assist physicians, these tools have been shown to reduce blood pressure by 10-15/5-8 mm Hg more than the control population and reduce HbA1c by 0.5-1 units, very similar to clinical trials using new drugs. Other approaches under evaluation include non-rule-based algorithms, such as large learning models, interactive chatbots, and voice-to-text translation, and so on. These interventions have the potential to improve clinical outcomes such as heart attacks and strokes.
The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission has included and recommended many such tools. The acceptability, however, is poor.
The value of the technology lies in how effectively it integrates into existing care pathways. For a patient living with hypertension, for example, a blood-pressure reading at home can become meaningful only when it reaches a healthcare provider who can interpret the trend and act on it. Similarly, a missed appointment or deterioration in readings should ideally trigger an intervention rather than remain invisible. Digital systems can create these feedback loops, helping care teams identify problems earlier, and patients receive support without every interaction requiring a physical visit.
But digital health cannot mean an app for every patient. India’s healthcare system is too diverse for a one-size-fits-all model. Connectivity, digital literacy, affordability, equity, and access to devices remain important considerations. In underserved communities, technology may be most effective when combined with doctors, nurses, community health workers, and other frontline personnel who can help patients navigate care. The objective should be to make healthcare more accessible and responsive, not to shift the responsibility of managing chronic disease onto patients.
This also calls for a shift in how we measure digital health. Screening and registration numbers matter, but they cannot be the endpoint. More meaningful measures include whether patients initiate treatment, remain in care, receive appropriate adjustments, and achieve sustained control.
Digital health cannot replace doctors, medicines, diagnostics, or strong primary healthcare. Its value lies in connecting these elements more effectively. This World Heart Day, India’s cardiovascular conversation therefore needs to move beyond how many people we can identify as being at risk to how effectively we can keep them connected to appropriate care.
The promise of digital health is much more than creating platforms. It is about making cardiovascular care more connected, responsive, and measurable so that fewer patients fall through the gaps after they have been identified.