Building a Rehabilitation Culture Through Patient Education and Counselling: A Perspective from the SoCVPR Experience in India

Background Patient education and counselling are core components of comprehensive cardiac rehabilitation (CR), supporting health literacy, self-management, behaviour change and long-term adherence to secondary prevention. Objective This perspective examines contemporary approaches to patient education and counselling in cardiac rehabilitation (CR), with particular attention to educational priorities within the Indian context and lessons arising from the experience of the Society of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (SoCVPR). Method: It integrates a narrative overview of relevant literature with a descriptive account based on SoCVPR activity records and the authors’ collective implementation experience. Organisational data are presented as indicators of programme activity and reach rather than evidence of clinical effectiveness. Main Content Patient education in Indian CR requires approaches responsive to health literacy, cultural and linguistic diversity, family involvement, health beliefs, affordability, and access to care. Key priorities include improving CR awareness, supporting physical activity and healthy nutrition, tobacco cessation, medication adherence, psychosocial well-being, and addressing financial barriers to participation. Since its establishment in 2021, SoCVPR has undertaken patient and community education initiatives, workforce development, certification programmes, and multidisciplinary collaborations to address these priorities. These experiences illustrate how professional societies may support the implementation of patient education and counselling while highlighting gaps in equity, systematic evaluation, and patient partnership. Experience-based lessons, considered alongside priorities identified in the literature, informed a proposed patient-, professional-, and system-level roadmap for future development. Conclusions The SoCVPR experience illustrates how professional societies may support contextually relevant patient education and counselling through patient and community engagement, workforce development, and collaborative networks. It also highlights the need for prospective evaluation of implementation, equity, patient experience, and rehabilitation outcomes.