HRIDAY, the Healthy India Alliance (HIA/India NCD Alliance), the All India Association for Advancing Research in Obesity (AIAARO) and Diabetes India convened the National Strategic Roundtable on Cardiovascular-Kidney-Metabolic Diseases (CKMDs) in New Delhi, bringing together professional medical associations, public health associations, academia, government, civil society organisations, researchers, healthcare professionals and lived to strengthen coordinated research and action on CKMDs and to advance empathic, integrated, person-centred and equitable care.

The roundtable set out to identify shared priorities across prevention, integrated care, research, policy, capacity building and the meaningful involvement of people living with CKMDs; and to establish an HIA Network for CKMDs to drive knowledge exchange, collaborative research, capacity building and the integration of HIA priorities into professional platforms and scientific meetings.

Discussions underlined the interconnectedness of obesity, insulin resistance, hypertension, kidney disease and cardiometabolic conditions, and the need to move from fragmented disease-specific responses to integrated, multisectoral action. Participants also stressed translating research into programmes and policy, supporting frontline health workers to use digital tools, and putting robust governance and genuine decision-making roles for people living with CKMDs at the centre of any new network.

The meeting concluded with recommendations for strengthening integrated, equitable and person-centred prevention, care, research and health system responses for CKMDs, and priority actions to institutionalise the meaningful engagement of people living with CKMDs across policies, programmes, research and service delivery.