Asthma and COPD in India: HCP Perceptions of Treatment Innovation, Personalization and Digital Respiratory Care

HCP Perception Study | India | N=50 HCPs

Study Objective

To understand HCP perceptions of asthma and COPD in India across unmet needs, treatment innovation, diagnosis, personalization, access barriers and the future role of technology in respiratory care.

Executive Summary

Asthma and COPD in India are entering a period of significant change. Advances in inhaled therapies, targeted treatments, diagnostic technologies and digital health are creating new opportunities for improving respiratory disease management.

At the same time, healthcare professionals continue to identify important gaps in diagnosis, affordability, treatment adequacy, adherence and access to specialized care.

This HCP perception study on asthma and COPD surveyed 50 healthcare professionals in India to understand their views on the current treatment landscape and the future direction of respiratory healthcare.

The findings show strong support for continued innovation, with 96% of surveyed HCPs rating continued innovation as a high or very high priority. However, 70% considered current treatment options only partially adequate, indicating that important unmet needs remain.

Personalization is another major theme. 86% considered personalized treatment and advanced diagnostics extremely or very important, while 84% expected broader adoption of newer therapies, diagnostics and technologies.

Digital transformation is also gaining momentum. 74% of HCPs considered AI and digital health likely or very likely to influence respiratory care.

HCP Survey Findings at a Glance

Source: HCP perception study, India, N=50 HCPs.

What Are the Key HCP Insights on Asthma and COPD in India?

The Asthma COPD HCP insights indicate that respiratory care is moving beyond conventional treatment toward a more integrated model combining diagnosis, personalized therapy, disease monitoring, adherence support and digital technologies.

Four themes stand out:

• Continued treatment innovation remains a high priority.
• Existing asthma and COPD treatment options are viewed as only partially adequate by many HCPs.
• Personalized care and advanced diagnostics are becoming increasingly important.
• Digital health and AI are expected to play a growing role in respiratory disease management.

These findings provide a focused view of respiratory HCP insights in India, while also highlighting the implementation barriers that could influence adoption.

1. Continued Innovation Is a Major Priority

96% of surveyed HCPs rated continued innovation as high or very high priority.

The finding reflects the changing expectations surrounding asthma treatment innovation and COPD treatment innovation.

Innovation is no longer limited to discovering new molecules. The respiratory-care ecosystem is increasingly focused on improving how treatments are diagnosed, delivered, monitored and integrated into everyday patient care.

Areas attracting attention include:

• Advanced inhaled therapies
• Improved drug-delivery devices
• Long-acting bronchodilators
• Biologic and targeted therapies for eligible patients
• Connected inhalers
• Digital adherence tools
• Remote monitoring
• AI-supported diagnostics and risk identification

For pharmaceutical and MedTech companies, this creates an opportunity to move from product-centric strategies toward broader respiratory-care solutions.

2. Current Treatment Options Still Leave Unmet Needs

70% of HCPs considered current treatment options only partially adequate.

This finding highlights the continuing unmet needs in asthma and COPD management.

Even when effective medicines are available, treatment outcomes can be influenced by factors beyond pharmacology. These include delayed diagnosis, incorrect inhaler technique, poor adherence, affordability and inadequate follow-up.

Consequently, the key asthma and COPD treatment challenges in India extend across the entire patient journey.

Key areas of unmet need include:

• Earlier disease identification
• Accurate diagnosis
• Appropriate treatment selection
• Treatment adherence
• Inhaler-technique education
• Exacerbation prevention
• Access to specialist care
• Affordable treatment
• Long-term disease monitoring

For healthcare organizations, this means that improving respiratory outcomes requires a combination of therapeutic, diagnostic and patient-support interventions.

3. Inhaled Therapies and Advanced Delivery Are Shaping Treatment Innovation

38% of HCPs identified inhaled therapies and advanced delivery approaches as the most impactful recent advancement.

Inhaled treatment remains a central component of both asthma and COPD management. As a result, innovations in drug delivery can have implications beyond convenience.

Newer approaches increasingly focus on improving:

• Ease of device use
• Dose delivery
• Treatment adherence
• Patient education
• Monitoring of medication use
• Integration with digital platforms

This evolution is particularly relevant to asthma treatment in India and COPD treatment in India, where treatment effectiveness can depend significantly on whether patients use inhalers correctly and consistently.

The opportunity for industry is therefore not simply to develop a new inhaled medicine, but to improve the overall treatment experience through better drug-device combinations, patient support and monitoring.

4. Personalized Treatment Is Becoming Central to Respiratory Care

86% of surveyed HCPs considered personalized treatment and advanced diagnostics extremely or very important.

The findings indicate growing interest in personalized asthma treatment and personalized COPD treatment.

Personalization can involve multiple clinical and patient-level factors, including:

• Disease severity
• Symptoms and exacerbation history
• Lung-function measurements
• Asthma phenotype
• Inflammatory characteristics
• Treatment response
• Comorbidities
• Inhaler technique
• Medication adherence
• Patient preferences

For asthma, phenotype-informed treatment can help clinicians identify patients who may benefit from more targeted approaches.

For COPD, appropriate diagnostic assessment and patient characterization can support more individualized management strategies.

This creates a growing need for advanced diagnostics for asthma and COPD, particularly technologies that can generate actionable information without adding unnecessary complexity to clinical workflows.

5. Diagnosis Is a Critical Opportunity in India

Delayed diagnosis was identified alongside cost and access as a leading implementation concern by 54% of surveyed HCPs.

Improving COPD diagnosis in India is particularly important because COPD can remain unrecognized until symptoms or exacerbations become significant.

Spirometry and pulmonary function testing remain important components of respiratory assessment, while emerging technologies may help expand access to screening and diagnostic support.

Similarly, improving asthma diagnosis in India requires appropriate clinical assessment and, where relevant, objective testing and phenotyping.

The broader opportunity is to strengthen the diagnostic pathway through:

• Greater access to spirometry
• Portable pulmonary-function technologies
• Earlier screening
• Better primary-care awareness
• Digital diagnostic support
• Improved referral pathways
• More systematic asthma phenotyping

For healthcare providers and MedTech companies, diagnostic accessibility is therefore an important part of the future of respiratory healthcare in India.

6. HCPs Expect Broader Adoption of Newer Approaches

84% of HCPs expected broader use of newer therapies, diagnostics and technologies.

This reflects a broader shift in asthma and COPD healthcare, where therapeutic innovation is increasingly being combined with diagnostic and digital capabilities.

The future respiratory-care model could involve a connected pathway:

Screening → Diagnosis → Phenotyping → Personalized Treatment → Monitoring → Adherence Support → Exacerbation Prevention

This integrated model can help shift care from episodic treatment toward more continuous disease management.

For pharmaceutical companies, it creates opportunities to develop patient-support programs around therapies. For MedTech companies, it creates demand for connected diagnostic and monitoring technologies. For digital-health providers, it creates opportunities to support adherence, education and remote follow-up.

7. AI and Digital Health Could Transform Respiratory Care

74% of surveyed HCPs considered AI and digital health likely or very likely to impact respiratory care.

The growing role of digital health in respiratory care is one of the most important emerging trends identified by the study.

Potential applications include:

• AI-supported respiratory screening
• Remote symptom monitoring
• Connected inhalers
• Digital inhaler-technique support
• Medication adherence monitoring
• Exacerbation-risk identification
• Teleconsultation
• Digital pulmonary rehabilitation
• Patient education
• Clinical decision-support tools

The most valuable digital solutions will not necessarily be the most technologically complex. Adoption will depend on whether technologies generate clinically useful information, fit existing workflows and remain accessible to patients and healthcare professionals.

For this reason, AI and digital health in asthma and COPD care should be viewed as an extension of clinical care rather than a replacement for clinician judgment.

8. Cost and Access Remain Major Implementation Barriers

54% of surveyed HCPs identified cost/access and delayed diagnosis as the leading implementation barrier.

This highlights a central challenge for respiratory disease management in India.

Advanced treatments and technologies can only improve outcomes when patients can access them and healthcare professionals can implement them effectively.

Key access considerations include:

• Treatment affordability
• Diagnostic availability
• Specialist access
• Reimbursement
• Patient awareness
• Availability of pulmonary-function testing
• Availability of trained healthcare professionals
• Digital-health accessibility

Therefore, the next stage of respiratory innovation must address both clinical value and implementation feasibility.

9. What Is the Future of Asthma and COPD Management in India?

The survey shows a broadly positive outlook, with 90% of HCPs expressing an optimistic or very optimistic view of asthma and COPD management over the next decade.

The future of asthma and COPD management in India is likely to involve greater integration between therapies, diagnostics, devices and digital technologies.

Five strategic priorities emerge from the HCP survey:

1. Earlier diagnosis Expand access to spirometry, pulmonary function testing and appropriate asthma assessment.

2. Personalized treatment Use disease characteristics, phenotype, treatment response and patient factors to guide therapeutic decisions.

3. Better disease management Focus on exacerbation prevention, adherence, inhaler technique and pulmonary rehabilitation.

4. Improved access Address affordability, diagnostic infrastructure, reimbursement and specialist availability.

5. Digital integration Expand remote monitoring, connected inhalers, adherence tools, AI-enabled risk identification and teleconsultation.

Strategic Implications for Pharmaceutical, MedTech and Digital-Health Companies

The Asthma COPD market research in India points toward a respiratory market where competitive differentiation may increasingly depend on the broader patient journey.

Pharmaceutical companies

Opportunities extend beyond new therapies toward:

• Patient-support programs
• Adherence solutions
• Disease education
• Digital companion tools
• HCP education
• Real-world evidence generation

MedTech companies

Priority areas include:

• Portable spirometry
• Connected inhalers
• Remote monitoring
• Diagnostic technologies
• Digital pulmonary-function solutions

Digital-health companies

Potential opportunities include:

• AI-enabled screening
• Remote monitoring
• Digital adherence
• Risk prediction
• Teleconsultation
• Digital pulmonary rehabilitation

The strategic opportunity is to build solutions that combine clinical effectiveness, usability, affordability and measurable outcomes.

Overall HCP Takeaway

The findings from this India respiratory disease perception study indicate that the future of respiratory care is moving toward earlier diagnosis, personalized treatment, improved disease management and greater use of digital technologies.

The strongest signals are clear:

• 96% prioritize continued innovation.
• 86% consider personalized treatment and advanced diagnostics highly important.
• 84% expect broader adoption of newer approaches.
• 74% anticipate an important role for AI and digital health.
• 90% have an optimistic outlook for the next decade.

At the same time, 70% consider current treatment options only partially adequate, while 54% identify cost/access and delayed diagnosis as major implementation barriers.

The findings suggest that the next generation of Asthma and COPD healthcare will not be defined by therapeutics alone. Progress will increasingly depend on connecting diagnosis, treatment, adherence, monitoring, patient support and digital health into more accessible and personalized care pathways.

For organizations operating across pharmaceutical, MedTech, healthcare and digital-health markets, these HCP healthcare provider insights highlight an important strategic direction: respiratory innovation must increasingly combine clinical advancement with practical implementation.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the major asthma and COPD treatment challenges in India?

The survey identifies cost and access, delayed diagnosis, treatment adequacy, adherence and diagnostic capacity as important challenges affecting respiratory care.

What do HCPs think about asthma treatment innovation?

In this survey, 96% of HCPs rated continued innovation as a high or very high priority. Inhaled therapies and advanced delivery approaches were identified as the most impactful recent advancement by 38%.

What is the importance of personalized treatment for asthma and COPD?

Personalized treatment can help align therapy with disease characteristics, phenotype, severity, treatment response and individual patient needs. In this study, 86% of HCPs rated personalized treatment and advanced diagnostics as extremely or very important.

What role can AI play in asthma and COPD management?

AI may support respiratory screening, risk identification, remote monitoring, adherence management and clinical decision support. Its value will depend on clinical validation, usability and integration into healthcare workflows.

Why are advanced diagnostics important for asthma and COPD in India?

Improved diagnostic capacity can support earlier identification, appropriate disease classification and more individualized treatment. Spirometry and pulmonary function testing are particularly relevant to COPD assessment.

What is the future of asthma and COPD management in India?

The survey points toward greater integration of earlier diagnosis, personalized treatment, advanced inhaled therapies, exacerbation prevention, remote monitoring, connected devices and digital health.

What do HCPs expect from the future of respiratory care in India?

In this N=50 study, 84% expected broader adoption of newer therapies, diagnostics and technologies, while 90% expressed an optimistic or very optimistic outlook for the next decade.

Why is HCP perception research important for respiratory healthcare companies?

An HCP perception study on asthma and COPD can help pharmaceutical, MedTech and digital-health organizations understand treatment priorities, unmet needs, adoption barriers and emerging expectations among healthcare professionals.

Study Methodology

Study: HCP Perception Study – Asthma & COPD in India Sample: N=50 healthcare professionals Market: India Focus: Asthma and COPD management, treatment innovation, diagnosis, personalization, access and digital health Research type: HCP perception research

The findings represent the perceptions of the surveyed HCP sample and should not be interpreted as nationally representative estimates of all healthcare professionals in India.