Failing to correctly diagnose and control high blood pressure (HBP) can put people at increased risk for cardiovascular disease, stroke, and renal failure. In the US, 20% of adults with hypertension do not know that they have the condition and 53% of US adults taking antihypertensive medication have uncontrolled BP.

New guidelines to improve detection and treatment of hypertension have been published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

The writing committee for this new document, which I chaired, developed new measures to evaluate the care of patients in accordance with the 2017 Hypertension Clinical Practice Guidelines. They developed a comprehensive measure set for the diagnosis and treatment of HBP that includes 22 new measures: six performance measures, six process quality measures and 10 structural quality measures. The effective implementation of this measure set by clinicians, care teams and health systems will lead to significant improvements in effective detection and treatment of HBP for millions of people across the US.

Learn more about the new performance and quality measures for HBP at the American College of Cardiology’s website and read more on TCTMD, the publication of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation.

Also visit Target:BP to learn more about how health care organizations and care teams can, at no cost, improve BP control rates through an evidence-based quality improvement program and recognizes organizations committed to improving BP control.


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