Advanced Certificate Course in Prevention & Management of Diabetes & Cardiovascular Disease (ACMDC)

Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which include heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung disease, are estimated to result in over 43 million deaths each year, or 75% of all deaths globally. Of these deaths, about 73% occurred in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). [1]
Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) accounted for the bulk of these deaths, with 33% all deaths globally, where ischemic heart disease (9.1 million deaths) and stroke (6.6 million deaths) made up 85% of the CVD-related deaths. Of the estimated 20.5 million CVD-related deaths in 2021, approximately 80% occurred in LMICs. [2]
There were an estimated 589 million people with diabetes in the world, a figure likely to reach 853 million by 2050. In India, the estimates were that 89.8 million people had diabetes, projected to rise to 156.7 million by 2050. Globally, there were approximately 3.4 million deaths in adults due to diabetes or its complications, while in India the figure was 0.33 million. [3]
The National Non-Communicable Disease Monitoring Survey (NNMS) reported a similar prevalence of diabetes of 9.3% across India, whereas the ICMR-INDIAB Collaborative Study Group estimated prevalence of diabetes of 11.4% was higher [4], [5].
Further, the prevalence of impaired fasting blood glucose was 24.5% and that of prediabetes was 15.3% in the NNMS and ICMR-INDIAB study respectively.
It is well known that unhealthy diets, physical inactivity and tobacco use, are all risk factors associated with the causation of diabetes as well as CVD.
Associated conditions like hypertension, dyslipidemia and obesity are implicated in increased morbidity and mortality due to diabetes as well as CVD. High rates of hypertension (35·5%), generalized obesity (28·6%), abdominal obesity (39·5%), and dyslipidemia (81·2%) were reported from the ICMR-INDIAB study.
Management of diabetes and CVD poses a major challenge for the healthcare systems due to a shortage of specialists who can treat these conditions. Therefore, there is a need to build the capacity of doctors to address the management of CVD and diabetes, or what is commonly referred to as “cardio-diabetes”.
The “Advanced Certificate Course in Prevention and Management of Diabetes and Cardiovascular Diseases (ACMDC)” is one such effort that aims to strengthen the technical competencies of primary care physicians to better manage diabetes and CVD.
The course has been developed and implemented in collaboration with the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), New Delhi.

References:
1. World Health Organization. Noncommunicable diseases; 2025 Sep 25. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/noncommunicable-diseases
2. Di Cesare M, Perel P, Taylor S, et al. The Heart of the World. Glob Heart. 2024;19(1):11.
3. Magliano DJ, Boyko EJ, editors. IDF Diabetes Atlas. 11th ed. Brussels: International Diabetes Federation; 2025.
4. Mathur P, Leburu S, Kulothungan V. Prevalence, Awareness, Treatment and Control of Diabetes in India From the Countrywide National NCD Monitoring Survey. Front Public Health. 2022;10:748157.
5. Anjana RM, Unnikrishnan R, Deepa M, et al; ICMR-INDIAB Collaborative Study Group. Metabolic non-communicable disease health report of India: the ICMR INDIAB national cross-sectional study (ICMR-INDIAB-17). Lancet Diabetes Endocrinol. 2023;11(7):474-89.