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Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in the Region of the Americas, and hypertension represents its main risk factor. However, population hypertension control rates in the Region are poor. Global Hearts is the World Health Organization's flagship initiative to reduce the burden of cardiovascular diseases. HEARTS in the Americas Initiative is its regional adaptation that seeks to be the cardiovascular disease risk management model, including hypertension and diabetes, in primary health care throughout the Americas by 2025. HEARTS in the Americas is being implemented in 22 countries and over 2 095 primary care centers. All implementing countries have defined their treatment protocols, and HEARTS in the Americas has supported continuous improvement. Because WHO recently released the 2021 Guideline for the Pharmacological Treatment of Hypertension in Adults and HEARTS in the Americas introduced the key drivers for hypertension control, the initiative generated a methodology to help countries update and strengthen their treatment protocols. This article describes the process of developing the treatment protocol appraisal checklist and defines the resulting clinical pathway. This tool can help countries and primary care centers to improve their protocols by identifying the improvement points and upgrading clinical pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the Americas, and hypertension is the most significant modifiable risk factor. However, hypertension control rates remain low, and CVD mortality is stagnant or rising after decades of continuing reduction. In 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the HEARTS technical package to improve hypertension control. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) designed the HEARTS in the Americas Initiative to improve CVD risk management, emphasizing hypertension control, to date implemented in 21 countries. Methods. To advance implementation, an interdisciplinary group of practitioners was engaged to select the key evidence-based drivers of hypertension control and to design a comprehensive scorecard to monitor their implementation at primary care health facilities (PHC). The group studied high-performing health systems that achieve high hypertension control through quality improvement programs focusing on specific process measures, with regular feedback to providers at health facilities. Findings. The final selected eight drivers were categorized into five main domains: (1) diagnosis (blood pressure measurement accuracy and CVD risk evaluation); (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 integrated into the HEARTS in the Americas monitoring and evaluation system. Interpretation. Focus on these key hypertension drivers and resulting scorecards, will guide the quality improvement process to achieve population control goals at the participating health centers in HEARTS implementing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the Americas and raised blood pressure accounts for over 50% of CVD. In the Americas over a quarter of adult women and four in ten adult men have hypertension and the diagnosis, treatment and control are suboptimal. In 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) released an updated guideline for the pharmacological treatment of hypertension in adults. This policy paper highlights the facilitating role of the WHO Global HEARTS initiative and the HEARTS in the Americas initiative to catalyze the implementation of this guideline, provides specific policy advice for implementation, and emphasizes that an overarching strategic approach for hypertension control is needed. The authors urge health advocates and policymakers to prioritize the prevention and control of hypertension to improve the health and wellbeing of their populations and to reduce CVD health disparities within and between populations of the Americas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death in the Americas and raised blood pressure accounts for over 50% of CVD. In the Americas over a quarter of adult women and four in ten adult men have hypertension and the diagnosis, treatment and control are suboptimal. In 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) released an updated guideline for the pharmacological treatment of hypertension in adults. This policy paper highlights the facilitating role of the WHO Global HEARTS initiative and the HEARTS in the Americas initiative to catalyze the implementation of this guideline, provides specific policy advice for implementation, and emphasizes that an over-arching strategic approach for hypertension control is needed. The authors urge health advocates and policymakers to prioritize the prevention and control of hypertension to improve the health and wellbeing of their populations and to reduce CVD health disparities within and between populations of the Americas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the Americas, and hypertension is the most significant modifiable risk factor. However, hypertension control rates remain low, and CVD mortality is stagnant or rising after decades of continuing reduction. In 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) launched the HEARTS technical package to improve hypertension control. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) designed the HEARTS in the Americas Initiative to improve CVD risk management, emphasizing hypertension control, to date implemented in 21 countries. Methods. To advance implementation, an interdisciplinary group of practitioners was engaged to select the key evidence-based drivers of hypertension control and to design a comprehensive scorecard to monitor their implementation at primary care health facilities (PHC). The group studied high-performing health systems that achieve high hypertension control through quality improvement programs focusing on specific process measures, with regular feedback to providers at health facilities. Findings. The final selected eight drivers were categorized into five main domains: (1) diagnosis (blood pressure measurement accuracy and CVD risk evaluation); (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 integrated into the HEARTS in the Americas monitoring and evaluation system. Interpretation. Focus on these key hypertension drivers and resulting scorecards, will guide the quality improvement process to achieve population control goals at the participating health centers in HEARTS implementing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HEARTS in the Americas is the Pan American Health Organization flagship program to accelerate the reduction of the cardiovascular disease (CVD) burden by improving hypertension control and CVD secondary prevention in primary health care. A monitoring and evaluation (M&E) platform is needed for program implementation, benchmarking, and informing policy-makers. This paper describes the conceptual bases of the HEARTS M&E platform including software design principles, contextualization of data collection modules, data structure, reporting, and visualization. The District Health Information Software 2 (DHIS2) web-based platform was chosen to implement aggregate data entry of CVD outcome, process, and structural risk factor indicators. In addition, PowerBI was chosen for data visualization and dashboarding for the analysis of performance and trends above the health care facility level. The development of this new information platform was focused on primary health care facility data entry, timely data reporting, visualizations, and ultimately active use of data to drive decision-making for equitable program implementation and improved quality of care. Additionally, lessons learnt and programmatic considerations were assessed through the experience of the M&E software development. Building political will and support is essential to developing and deploying a flexible platform in multiple countries which is contextually specific to the needs of various stakeholders and levels of the health care system. The HEARTS M&E platform supports program implementation and reveals structural and managerial limitations and care gaps. The HEARTS M&E platform will be central to monitoring and driving further population-level improvements in CVD and other noncommunicable disease-related health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hypertension and diabetes are modifiable cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors that contribute to nearly one-third of all deaths in the Americas Region each year (2.3 million deaths). Despite advances in the detection and clinical management of hypertension and diabetes, there are substantial gaps in their implementation globally and in the Region. The considerable overlap in risk factors, prognosis, and treatment of hypertension and diabetes creates a unique opportunity for a unified implementation model for management at the population level. This report highlights one such high-profile effort, the Pan American Health Organization's "HEARTS in the Americas" program, based on the World Health Organization's HEARTS Technical Package for Cardiovascular Disease Management in Primary Health Care. The HEARTS program aims to improve the implementation of preventive CVD care in primary health systems using six evidence-based, pragmatic components: Healthy-lifestyle counseling, Evidence-based protocols, Access to essential medicines and technology, Risk-based CVD management, Team-based care, and Systems for monitoring. To date, HEARTS implementation projects have focused primarily on hypertension given that it is the leading modifiable CVD risk factor and can be treated cost-effectively. The objective of this report is to describe opportunities for integration of diabetes clinical care and policy within the HEARTS hypertension framework. A substantial global burden of disease could be averted with integrated primary care management of these conditions. Thus, there is an urgency in applying lessons from HEARTS to close these implementation gaps and improve the integrated detection, treatment, and control of diabetes and hypertension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global Hearts is the flagship initiative of the World Health Organization to reduce the burden of cardiovascular diseases, the leading cause of death and disability worldwide. HEARTS in the Americas Initiative is the regional adaptation that envisions HEARTS as the model for cardiovascular disease risk management, including hypertension and diabetes, in primary health care in the Americas by 2025. This initiative is entering its sixth year of implementation and now includes 22 countries and 1 380 primary health care centers. The objectives of this report are three-fold. First, it describes the emergence and the main elements of HEARTS in the Americas. Secondly, it summarizes the main innovations developed to catalyze and sustain implementation of the initiative. These innovations include: a) introduction of hypertension control drivers; b) development of a comprehensive and practical clinical pathway; c) development of a strategy to improve the accuracy of blood pressure measurement; d) creation of a monitoring and evaluation platform; and e) development of a standardized set of training and education resources. Thirdly, this report discusses future priorities of the initiative. The goal of implementing these innovative and pragmatic solutions is to create a more effective health system and shift the focus of cardiovascular and hypertension programs from the highly specialized care level to primary health care. In addition, HEARTS in the Americas can serve as a model for more comprehensive, effective, and sustainable noncommunicable disease prevention and treatment practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HEARTS in the Americas is the regional adaptation of the World Health Organization's Global Hearts Initiative, which will be the model for risk management for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in primary health care in the Region of the Americas by 2025. It has already been implemented in 21 countries and 1045 primary health care centers throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. It takes a public health and health systems approach to systematically introduce simplified interventions at the primary health care level and focuses on hypertension as a clinical entry point. This paper introduces a new, improved application (app), the main component of which is the calculator for CVD risk and hypertension management. The paper summarizes the risk assessment approach and the methodology used by the World Health Organization to update its cardiovascular risk charts in 2019; describes the app, its use, functionality and validation process; and provides a set of practical recommendations for optimizing CVD risk and hypertension management by using the app in clinical practice. The HEARTS app is a powerful tool to improve the quality of care provided in primary health settings. The creation and dissemination of the HEARTS app is an essential step in the journey towards eliminating preventable CVD in the Americas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]