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The clinical implications of hypertension in addition to a high prevalence of both uncontrolled blood pressure and medication nonadherence promote interest in developing device-based approaches to hypertension treatment. The expansion of device-based therapies and ongoing clinical trials underscores the need for consistency in trial design, conduct, and definitions of clinical study elements to permit trial comparability and data poolability. Standardizing methods of blood pressure assessment, effectiveness measures beyond blood pressure alone, and safety outcomes are paramount. The Hypertension Academic Research Consortium (HARC) document represents an integration of evolving evidence and consensus opinion among leading experts in cardiovascular medicine and hypertension research with regulatory perspectives on clinical trial design and methodology. The HARC document integrates the collective information among device-based therapies for hypertension to better address existing challenges and identify unmet needs for technologies proposed to treat the world's leading cause of death and disability. Consistent with the Academic Research Consortium charter, this document proposes pragmatic consensus clinical design principles and outcomes definitions for studies aimed at evaluating device-based hypertension therapies. © 2022 Lippincott Williams and Wilkins. All rights reserved.

The interest in RDN for hypertension has fluctuated recently, with a flurry of initial enthusiasm followed by sudden loss of interest by researchers and device manufacturers, with an almost as sudden resurgence in clinical trials activity and device innovation more recently. There is widespread consensus that this therapeutic strategy can be effective, at least for some of the technologies available. Major uncertainties remain as to the clinical role of RDN, and whether any of the emerging technologies such as AV-anastomosis formation, carotid body ablation, carotid bulb expansion, or baroreflex stimulation will have a future as effective treatment options in patients with hypertension. In our first consensus report in 2015, the European Expert Group pointed to the major unmet need of standardization of measurements, trial design and procedural performance.6 With the large number of different technologies currently in the pipeline, this need has even increased. Only through high-quality, collaborative research and openness to new methods for recruitment, patient selection, and assessment of outcomes will it be possible to establish incontrovertibly whether device therapies for hypertension are effective and what are preferred patient populations. Once the proof of concept is established, further studies with a design relevant to clinical reality will be needed to establish the place of new devices in the treatment armoury. The clinical and research community has a large responsibility to prove or disprove the value of new therapies, in order to ensure that antihypertensive devices provide future patients with the greatest benefit and the smallest risk. copy; The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology.

The professional translation work is highly influenced by new communication opportunities, reason why teleworking must occupy its rightful place in translator training at tertiary level. In addition, the ideal translation process should be divided into different stages (as already occurs in major translation agencies), each task being assigned to a different team member with a different role. This paper presents the results of a research study on translation students’ disposition towards and level of satisfaction with the use of a collaborative work environment. We propose a “Professional Approach to Translator Training”, our didactic model combines elements of roleplay, team-based task learning, simulation and case study in an innovative e-learning environment that functions via a collaborative platform (BSCW). Questionnaires were designed and used as evaluation tools before and after the experience of working in a collaborative environment. The aim of these evaluation tools was to measure students’ knowledge of the following skills: computing, tele- and teamwork, and translation tasks. The internal global consistency was adequate (Cronbach’s alpha in the pre-course questionnaire is 0.902 and the value for the post-course questionnaire is 0.802). Results show that collaborative work environments make the learning process easier, maintain students’ pre-existing positive disposition towards teamwork, and improve students’ self-confidence with regard to computers and translation tasks. The data obtained from this study suggest that using a collaborative work platform in translation course is beneficial, enabling students to gain confidence and feel satisfied with their work.