The Pan American Health Organization invites you to participate in a new webinar of the HEARTS initiative in the Americas on  "Innovating in HEARTS: Hypertension control drivers & scorecards" that will take place on Friday, 5 November 2021

Background 

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of premature morbidity and mortality globally, and elevated systolic blood pressure (SBP) is the most significant modifiable risk factor. According to the 2019 Global Burden of Disease Study, high SBP accounted for 10.8 million deaths in 2019 or 19.2% of total deaths. Likewise, CVD is the most prominent cause of disease burden in the Americas, with 2 million deaths annually and a substantial socioeconomic impact.

Hypertension can be prevented and controlled. However, despite some progress in the last decade, hypertension control remains low. In 2019, in Latin America and the Caribbean, only 35% of women and 23% of men had hypertension controlled (<140/90 mmHg). Nonetheless, a significant and sustained improvement in hypertension control has been achieved in multiple settings. For instance, in Southern and Northern California Kaiser Permanente in the United States, hypertension control improved from approximately 50% to 90% over ten years (2005 - 2015).

A group of innovative practitioners was convened to study these high performing health systems resulting in the selection of eight hypertension control drivers categorized into five main domains: 1) diagnosis (BP measurement accuracy and CVD risk); 2) treatment (standardized treatment protocol and treatment intensification); 3) continuity of care and follow-up; 4) delivery system (team-based care, medication refill), and 5) system for performance evaluation. The drivers and recommendations were then translated into process measures, resulting in two interconnected scorecards.

In this webinar, you will learn about these practical hypertension control drivers and how to measure and monitor them to improve your hypertension control program.

Audience 

• Primary Health Care Providers from all institutions, including centers implementing HEARTS.
• Professional Societies of Cardiology, Hypertension, Family Medicine and others.
• Ministry of Health personnel including the areas of Primary Care, Noncommunicable Diseases, Health Technologies.

How to participate

• DATE: Friday, 5 November 2021
• TIME: 2:00 - 4:00 pm (EDT) [see time correspondence below]
• REGISTER: 
  • After registering, you will receive a confirmation email with information on how to join the webinar.
  • If the capacity of the virtual room is exceeded, you can follow the session on the PAHO YouTube channel in the following links: 
• LANGUAGE: The session will be in English, Spanish, and Portuguese with simultaneous translation.

Recording

Agenda

Moderator: Dr. Pedro Ordúñez  –  Regional Advisor on Noncommunicable Diseases. HEARTS Program in the Americas. (PAHO)

First Section. HEARTS in the Americas introducing: The Hypertension Control Drivers

• Hypertension Control Drivers and the work of the Innovation Group. Dr. Jeff Brettler, MD (USA)
• Hypertension Control Driver: Medication Titration. Dr. Gonzalo Rodriguez, MD (Argentina)
• Hypertension Control Driver: Patient Follow up. Carolina Neira, Nurse, MBA (Chile)

Q and A

Second Section. Scoping two main drivers

• Quality improvement - How to translate the hypertension control drivers into process measures. HEARTS indexes and Scorecards. Dr. Gloria Giraldo, MPH (US)
• Reflections from a country implementer. Dr. Shana Cyr, MD (Saint Lucia)

Q and A

Third Section. HEARTS in the Americas, using resources smartly

• Virtual course on hypertension control drivers at PHC centers. Dr. Yenny Rodriguez, MD, MSc (US)

Q and A

Time correspondence 

• 12:00 pm. – Belmopan, Guatemala City, Managua, San José (CR), San Salvador, Tegucigalpa
•  1:00 pm. – Kingston, Mexico City, Panamá City
•  2:00 pm. – Bridgetown, Castries, Georgetown, Nassau, Port-au-Prince, Port of Spain, San Juan, Washington DC
•  3:00 pm. – Brasilia, Paramaribo
•  7:00 pm. – Geneva, Madrid

For other cities, check the time in the following link

Links of interest:

Resources

HEARTS in the Americas

 Cardiovascular Risk Calculator

HEARTS in the Americas. Virtual Courses

Articles

1. Frieden TR, Varghese CV, Kishore SP, Campbell NRC, Moran AE, Padwal R, et al. Scaling up effective treatment of hypertension—A pathfinder for universal health coverage. J Clinical Hypertens. 2019;21(10):1442-9 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31544349/
2. Guideline for the pharmacological treatment of hypertension in adults. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2021. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGOhttps://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240033986
3. Campbell NRC, Ordunez P, Giraldo G, Rodriguez Morales YA, Lombardi C, Khan T, et al. WHO HEARTS: A Global Program to Reduce Cardiovascular Disease Burden: Experience Implementing in the Americas and Opportunities in Canada. Can J Cardiol. 2021;37(5):744-55. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33310142/
4. 5. DiPette DJ, Skeete J, Ridley E, Campbell NRC, Lopez-Jaramillo P, Kishore SP, Jaffe MG, Coca A, Townsend RR, Ordunez P. Fixed-dose combination pharmacologic therapy to improve hypertension control worldwide: Clinical perspective and policy implications. J Clin Hypertens (Greenwich). 2019 Jan;21(1):4-15 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jch.13426