Project Lead(s): Patricio Lopez-Jaramillo
Hypertension is the leading cause of death and cardiovascular disease worldwide. It affects about one billion people. Despite the robust evidence that lowering blood pressure reduces cardiovascular disease, the rates of treatment (~40%) and control (<15%) are low in most middle-income countries. The reasons for this include micro-systems (patients and physicians) and macro-systems, such as inadequate human resources, lack of systematic strategies, lack of access to an inexpensive combination of blood pressure-lowering drugs, and complex treatment guidelines that are based on approaches in high-income countries but not practicable in resource-constrained settings.
This innovation proposes to develop and field test a process for a contextually appropriate and innovative model for hypertension detection, treatment and control that will be rigorously evaluated, and can be scaled up into national programmes and integrated into the healthcare systems of Colombia and Malaysia.