Access Health International has highlighted the growing cardiorenal metabolic disease burden in the Asia-Pacific region, calling for more integrated and patient-centred care models across the region.
During the webinar, “Confronting the CRM Care Crisis in Asia-Pacific”, speakers discussed how cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and related metabolic conditions are increasingly occurring together rather than as separate diseases. The session focused on what healthcare systems are currently lacking, and what coordinated action is needed to address this rising disease burden.
Dr Krishna Reddy from Access Health International said that cardiorenal metabolic diseases account for around 30 per cent of deaths in the population, 50 per cent of premature deaths, 50 per cent of disabilities, and a significant amount of productivity loss. He also highlighted that ageing populations and rising multimorbidity are adding to the scale of the problem across the region.
A key point raised during the session was that CRM conditions should not be treated as isolated diseases. Instead, they should be understood as an interrelated complex of conditions that require coordinated policy, provider, payer and public health responses. This is especially important as many healthcare systems remain fragmented, with care pathways often built around single-disease management rather than whole-person care.
Access Health International’s regional report, “Advancing Cardiorenal Metabolic Health in Asia-Pacific: Connected Risks, Coordinated Solutions”, assessed five countries: Australia, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. The report found that CRM diseases account for more than 30 per cent of all deaths across Asia-Pacific and between 11 to 21 per cent of disability-adjusted life years lost in the region.
The report also showed that disease co-occurrence is becoming the norm. In Australia, more than 38 per cent of adults live with multiple chronic conditions, while in Malaysia, more than 500,000 people live simultaneously with type 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension and high cholesterol levels. In South Korea, 51.6 per cent of the population already meets criteria for stage two chronic kidney syndrome, reflecting the wider challenge of established chronic multimorbidity.
One of the major gaps highlighted was late and missed diagnosis, particularly for chronic kidney disease and metabolic-associated fatty liver disease, which are often asymptomatic in the early stages. In Thailand, CKD awareness was reported to be as low as 1.9 per cent, while in the Philippines, 35.9 per cent of patients are already in stages three to five at the point of diagnosis.
The economic impact is also significant. The report stated that Australia’s direct expenditure exceeded $52.5 billion, representing approximately half of disease-related spending. In the Philippines, chronic kidney disease accounted for over $10 billion in healthcare spending, while productivity losses from CRM diseases in Thailand, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes, reached over 900 billion baht in 2019.
For healthcare systems, the implication is clear. Earlier detection and integrated disease management are not only clinical priorities, but also fiscal priorities. As disease progression increases, treatment costs rise, and these costs become even greater when conditions are managed in isolation.
The report identified several challenges across CRM care, including late diagnosis, delayed treatment initiation, fragmented referral pathways, poor disease control, policy fragmentation, financing limitations and persistent resource inequities. It also noted that while countries may have individual disease strategies for diabetes, cardiovascular disease or kidney disease, they often lack a unified national CRM framework.
To address these gaps, Access Health International recommended a more coordinated approach across strategy, policy, care delivery, financing and equity. This includes developing unified national CRM strategies, standardising risk-based bundled screening, redesigning primary care for multidisciplinary management, reforming payment models to support prevention and coordinated care, and building digital infrastructure for population-level care coordination.
The patient perspective also showed why integrated care is urgently needed. Manvir Victor, co-founder of Vital Signs Asia, shared his experience of living with end-stage renal failure, dialysis, heart failure and diabetes. He described how fragmented care meant having to see several different doctors while personally carrying his medical data between providers, especially in the absence of a fully digitalised system.
For the MedTech and digital health sectors, the discussion points to a wider opportunity to support future-ready chronic disease care. Digital health records, risk-based screening tools, remote monitoring, clinical decision support and integrated care platforms could play an important role in helping healthcare systems detect CRM risks earlier and coordinate care more effectively.
The webinar reinforced that Asia-Pacific’s CRM crisis is not only a disease burden issue, but also a system readiness issue. As populations age and multimorbidity becomes more common, healthcare systems will need to move from reactive treatment to proactive early detection, from disease-specific plans to integrated strategies, and from fragmented services to coordinated, person-centred care.
