Challenges and solutions to implementing cardiac rehabilitation in a low- and middle-income country.

Background: Cardiac rehabilitation (CR) remains greatly underutilized, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). It is therefore important to explore factors that contribute to this, as perceived by health-care professionals (HCPs).

Research design and methods: This was a qualitative study using in-depth interviews that enrolled 18 HCPs (i.e. six each of physicians, physiotherapists, and nurses; mean experience in CR: 17.9 ± 11.8 yrs) working in cardiovascular care, and CR across private and government hospitals (both teaching and non-teaching) in India.

Results: The main challenges were related to lack of referrals, perceived lack of benefit from CR, poor infrastructure within hospitals and health systems, and differences in practice. The perceived inadequacies were lack of competencies in CR, limited task sharing strategies, and ineffective utilization of existing human resources. Devising strategies to improve awareness and competencies, facilitating task sharing, and remodeling holistic care with an active CR component may be beneficial to facilitate greater implementation of CR in India.

Conclusions: Challenges, inadequacies, and solutions to implementing CR have been explored by involving various HCPs commonly involved in delivering CR across different health systems in a LMIC.

Trial registration: www.ctri.nic.in with identifier CTRI/2020/07/026807.