Hypertension, or high blood pressure, is a major and growing public health problem in the United States.  Approximately 72 million people in the U.S., or about 1 in 3 adults suffer from the disease, which if left untreated can increase risks for heart attack, stroke, and/or other health complications. Blood pressure management has been identified as a key component of the Million Hearts initiative, led by CMS and CDC with a goal to prevent one million heart attacks and strokes over the next five years by focusing on the “ABCS” (aspirin for high-risk patients, blood-pressure control, cholesterol management, and smoking cessation).

As part of “National High Blood Pressure Education Month,” the ACC throughout May is focused on reminding cardiovascular professionals about the tools and resources available to help not only improve care for patients with/or at risk of  hypertension, but also help educate patients about the importance of controlling their blood pressure and minimizing their cardiovascular risks.

Just last year, the ACC Foundation, along with the American Heart Association and the American Medical Association – Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement, released truly ground-breaking performance measures designed to help clinicians treating adults with coronary artery disease (CAD) and hypertension (view the Performance Measures here). Unlike previous measures, these focused not just on treatment in the hospital setting, but on primary and secondary prevention as well. They also addressed whether important cardiac risk factors are being “controlled” to targeted goals vs. simply “treated” – a move that requires much greater patient involvement in treatment and care decisions. Finally, these performance measures emphasized patient-focused functional outcomes and stressed the need to not only assess patient angina and functional symptoms but also to develop treatment plans to improve these outcomes.

The ACC’s PINNACLE Registry takes these performance measures and puts them into action. Registry participants collect data on practice performance and then receive quarterly benchmark reports that can and should be used to identify areas for improvement. Participants in the registry also have access to the PINNACLE Network as a means of sharing best practices and encouraging quality improvement among registry users. PINNACLE is one of the primary ways the ACC is working on a national level with the Million Heart’s initiative.

The ACC’s CardioSmart^TM initiative is also a critical resource when it comes to hypertension. Cardiac care providers can download patient fact sheets in both English and Spanish, or send patients directly to CardioSmart.org to take advantage of the CardioSmart Health Tracker: Blood Pressure Tool. CardioSmart has set a goal of capturing 5,000 blood pressures through the month of May via the online tool and working with its partners at the grassroots level.

Sometimes the toughest problems have the easiest solutions. When it comes to taking down the number one cause of mortality worldwide, taking simple steps to manage conditions like blood pressure can go a long way.

In case you missed it, there’s only one day left to participate in the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), Million Hearts and AHA “Beat Down Blood Pressure” video challenge: http://bloodpressure.challenge.gov/.

How are you helping your patients manage hypertension? Share your tips in the comment section below!

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