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AHA receives grant for initiative to improve BP control in African Americans
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Kaiser Permanente has awarded a $2.55 million grant to the American Heart Association for an initiative intended to improve BP control among African Americans in two cities within 3 years, using both community- and clinic-based techniques.
The Community to Clinic, Clinic to Community (C2C2): Improving Hypertension Control in Blacks and African Americans initiative is a collaboration between health care providers, community organizations, clinics and volunteers, with a focus on aiding patients in tracking and monitoring their BP and sharing their data with physicians, according to an AHA press release.
Regular BP assessments are a key element of the program. Participants enrolled will receive access to the AHA’s Heart360 online health management program, which will allow them to track BP and other factors and make the data available to the participant, a health care provider and a volunteer health mentor.
C2C2 will incorporate both medical clinics and community-based locations such as pharmacies, churches and community centers. The community locations will serve as a liaison between clinics and patients and reinforce doctors’ instructions, providing encouragement to make healthy choices and maintain treatment adherence, according to the release. The initiative will also include public service announcements and social media- and community-based campaigns stressing the importance of BP control.
The grant will fund the initial launch of the program in Atlanta and San Diego, with the goal of eventually replicating the program in additional cities nationwide.
“In the scheme of what we can do to address preventable heart disease, strokes and other health problems, taking on and bringing down uncontrolled high BP can prevent heart disease and strokes and save lives. It is that simple,” AHA deputy chief science officer Eduardo Sanchez, MD, MPH, said in the release. “Kaiser Permanente has shown that a clinic-based program works to control BP better, and the AHA has shown that a community-based program works to control BP better. It only makes sense to combine clinical care and community programs to build a comprehensive approach to control BP.”