The adaptation of the World Heart Federation (WHF) Roadmaps in India is based on the frameworks established by three of the Global CVD Roadmaps: Secondary Prevention, Hypertension and Tobacco Control.
In India, this adaptation was led by the Centre for Chronic Disease Control (CCDC) and Health Related Information Dissemination Amongst Youth (HRIDAY). The project started with a launch organized by WHF, the Cardiological Society of India (CSI), CCDC and HRIDAY at the 2015 Cardiac Prevent conference, which engaged experts and government officials in the concepts of the Roadmaps. Dr. Monika Arora, Executive Director of HRIDAY and Emerging Leaders faculty member, led the Tobacco Control component of the project.
The process involved conducting desk reviews and situational analyses at the national, state and district level, and following this up with policy briefs, country score cards, policy dialogues at the state and national level, and finally preparing an action plan for strengthening health systems for hypertension and secondary prevention, augmenting implementation of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) in India.
The outcome of the situational analysis and the policy dialogues aided the development of a comprehensive implementation plan for the execution of the tobacco control and health system roadmaps up to the district level.
The first Steering Group meeting was held in December 2016 in order to guide the roadmap process, conduct policy dialogues, support the development of an action plan, and determine priorities in the three focus areas.
State level policy dialogues were held in Chennai in April 2017, followed by national level dialogues in September. The aim of these dialogues was to:
- set priority goals and develop an implementation plan, taking into account the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities.
- identify strengths and weaknesses in the provision of CVD services and tobacco control in India.
- discuss policy options/solutions based on the India CVD Roadmap and the findings of the situational analysis and CVD scorecard.
- set a clear path for implementing the Action Plan and achieving the targets of the National Action Plan for the Prevention and Control of NCDs, and discuss immediate steps for its implementation.
