Healthcare in India must move beyond curative treatments to include preventive and holistic health: Experts
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Public Health Experts call for integrating technology, tradition and lifestyle interventions to build a healthier, more resilient population
“Healthcare is not limited to curative treatments. It includes preventive, promotive, palliative and rehabilitative care, much of which happens within the community,” said Mr. Rajesh Bhushan, Former Secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India and Chairperson, Governing Council, Illness to Wellness Foundation, delivering the keynote address at the 4th Annual Summit on “Advancing Holistic Health through Innovation, Technology, and Tradition” in New Delhi.
India today stands at a critical juncture in its healthcare journey. Rapid urbanisation, changing lifestyles, rising stress levels, and increasing screen time are contributing to a growing burden of chronic conditions. Against this backdrop, the summit brought together policymakers, clinicians, public health experts, and industry leaders to examine how healthcare systems must evolve from reactive models of care to more proactive, preventive, and personalised approaches. Leaning on traditional Indian wisdom and practices, the discussions highlighted the need to embed health across daily routines, workplaces, and communities.
“Our population of over 1.4 billion, with diverse health needs and access challenges, can benefit significantly from building a culture of health-seeking behaviour through community-focused programmes and organisations such as the Illness to Wellness Foundation. This is critical to ensuring that people are able to fully benefit from India’s healthcare ecosystem, which includes a mix of public and private modern healthcare providers as well as diverse traditional systems under AYUSH,” Mr. Bhushan said, noting the unique challenges and opportunities in healthcare delivery in India.
“Technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning can improve the efficiency and quality of healthcare delivery, when combined with systems of digital public health infrastructure, including the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) and the Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA), which enable interoperability, longitudinal health records, and a more integrated healthcare ecosystem,” Mr. Bhushan said, concluding his remarks.
Welcoming the gathering, Mr. Anil Rajput, Chairperson, Advisory Council, Illness to Wellness Foundation, said, “The theme of this year’s summit, ‘Advancing Holistic Health through Innovation, Technology, and Tradition,’ reflects a shift in how we think about healthcare. For decades, systems have focused on treating illness. The real challenge before us is how to prevent disease and enable people to live healthier, longer and more balanced lives.”
“The future of healthcare must be built in our homes, our kitchens, our schools, our workplaces and our daily routines. We must move from a system that reacts to illness towards a society that actively works towards wellness, beyond treating symptoms to recognising differences in lifestyle, environment, and personal health profiles. A more personalised and holistic understanding of health is essential to building effective preventive systems. This aligns with India’s traditional knowledge systems, which have long emphasised balance, lifestyle, and individual constitution as central to well-being,” Mr. Rajput further added.
Speaking on holistic well-being, Dr. Manoj Nesari, Senior Chief Medical Officer (SAG), CGHS, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India and Former Advisor, Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India, highlighted two key concepts in traditional vedic systems i.e. aarogya, a comprehensive term encompassing the elements that constitute complete health, as well as the term swasth (swa, meaning self, and stha, meaning state of being. He emphasised that health must be understood as a holistic concept of being disease free, well-nourished, physically and mentally fit and in a state of alignment with one’s natural self.
“A truly healthy individual is one who is able to contribute meaningfully to and benefit from the social and the natural world around them. Health, therefore, is not just an individual outcome, but a shared responsibility across the individual, the community and the environment. We have forgotten the importance that traditional Indian food systems placed on dietary diversity and seasonal diets as well as on environmental balance to sustain long-term health outcomes for both individuals and communities.” Dr. Nesari added.
(Padma Bhushan) Dr. T S Kler, Member, Advisory Council, Illness to Wellness Foundation and Chairman & HOD – BLK-Max Heart & Vascular Institute and Chairman Pan Max – Electrophysiology, also spoke about the importance of leveraging public healthcare systems not only for treatment, but also for building awareness around health and prevention.
“Health must remain our foremost priority—far above all else. Today, a significant proportion of premature deaths are linked to lifestyle risks and environmental factors. We must move towards an integrated, holistic model that combines allopathy with traditional systems of medicine, ensuring a more balanced and patient-centric approach. Equally important is the need to create greater awareness through continuous dialogue and education, as a lot can be achieved with the resources we already have,” Dr. Kler said
Concluding the inaugural session, Dr. Ravi Gaur, Co-Chair, FICCI Digital Health Task Force & Healthcare Awards and Founder – DRG Path Lab, thanked the speakers for their insights and reiterated the importance of continued conversations on integrating innovation, traditional knowledge and preventive approaches in healthcare.
Dr. Gaur said, “The real shift we need is from managing disease to building a culture of health ownership. As stakeholders across sectors, our role is not just to develop systems, but to create awareness and belief that preventive and person-centric healthcare is achievable. We look forward to building on these discussions in the sessions ahead.”
The summit features a series of thematic discussions examining multiple dimensions of holistic health and well-being. These include conversations around mental health as a critical component of productivity and daily life, with a focus on managing stress, addressing burnout, supporting students, and fostering more open and supportive environments across workplaces and educational institutions.
Discussions also explore the growing role of digital health in enabling preventive care and improving access, including the use of digital health infrastructure, telemedicine platforms, and emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and data-driven systems to support early detection and more efficient healthcare delivery.
In addition, the summit also highlights the importance of integrating traditional practices such as yoga, meditation, nutrition, and Ayurveda into modern healthcare approaches, reinforcing the value of combining lifestyle interventions with clinical care to support overall well-being.
