National High Blood Pressure Education Month starts today. Find out how you can participate, educate your patients and learn the latest techniques in self-measured blood pressure monitoring (SMBP) throughout the month of May.
One in three U.S. adults has hypertension. With such a high prevalence rate, it is likely that your practice is treating patients with this condition. The AMA’s Improving Health Outcomes initiative is taking steps to reduce the rate of uncontrolled hypertension.
Here are four ways you can partner with your patients to help get the upper hand on blood pressure control:
Learn how SMBP can work for your patients
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the last decade saw a 66 percent increase in the number of hypertension-related deaths in the United States. SMBP is a great way to engage patients in managing high blood pressure. Learn more about SMBP, and get started in your practice with these resources:
- Find out why you should use SMBP.
- Learn what you need to start SMBP in your practice.
- Examine expert insights into the latest blood pressure trials and guidelines.
- Find out how one practice is using SMBP with few resources.
- Check out the Improving Blood Pressure Control module in the AMA’s STEPS Forward™ collection of practice improvement strategies.
- Use the one graphic you need for accurate blood pressure reading.
Participate in Measure Up/Pressure Down National Day of Action May 5
Motivate your patients to “roll up their sleeves” and get a blood pressure reading May 5 for a special day of action as part of the Million Hearts® and American Medical Group Foundation’s Measure Up/Pressure Down initiative.
On May 5, physicians and others will be participating in at least one action to raise awareness of high blood pressure.
Take the World Hypertension Day and BP monitoring challenge
World Hypertension Day will be observed May 17. Supported by the American Heart Association (AHA) in collaboration with the World Hypertension League, this year’s theme is “know your numbers.”
Throughout the month of May, encourage your patients to visit the AHA’s Target: BP website and select the “I’ve Checked My Blood Pressure” button each time they get a blood pressure reading. All of the clicks will be counted by May 17 in an effort to reach 3 million blood pressure checks in one month. You can follow along with the action around this initiative on Twitter using the hashtags #BPcheck and #knowyournumbers.
Follow AMA Wire® over the next four weeks for more on SMBP and how it is working for physicians and patients.
