High blood pressure isn’t just a personal health concern, it’s a powerful indicator of a population's overall health. Poorly controlled hypertension can silently lead to a cascade of complications, from heart disease to kidney failure, putting individuals and communities alike at risk. For health care organizations focused on making a measurable impact, improving hypertension management isn’t just about reducing numbers on a monitor—it’s about driving quality care that resonates across entire populations.
By doing so, they are not only addressing one of the most pervasive health risks of our time but also paving the way toward a future where hypertension-related conditions are managed more effectively, health outcomes improve, and the collective heartbeat of the population stays strong.
This can be accomplished through AMA MAP™ Hypertension. This evidence-based quality improvement program provides a clear path to significant, sustained improvements in blood pressure control that can address hurdles to care. The program’s framework focuses on measuring accurately, acting rapidly, and partnering with patients.
The AMA and i2i Population Health are collaborating to give organizations access to AMA MAP Hypertension metrics, reports, quality-improvement tools and resources. Health care organizations who use the i2iTracks population health management platform can access AMA MAP materials, and tailored educational webinars designed to educate care teams on strategies and action steps that support optimal care for patients with high blood pressure .
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The three-part webinar series offers a comprehensive overview of the AMA MAP Hypertension program and dives deeper into each of its components: measuring accurately, acting rapidly and partnering with patients.
“i2i is incredibly excited to be collaborating with AMA on this program,” Josh Glueck, MPH, i2i Population Health’s senior director for quality management, said during the first webinar. As a population health technology company, i2i Population Health aims to improve quality outcomes, access to care and care coordination.
“We feel strongly that the i2iTracks application is such a powerful tool to lead such a program and engage with patients…manage and measure their BP control rates and act on those levels, and to partner with the patients, said Glueck, who participated with AMA experts for all three webinars.
What AMA brings to this collaboration is expertise in hypertension control, clinical operations and quality improvement, Crystal Amato, MSHI, RN, improving health outcomes client success manager at the AMA, said during the first webinar.
AMA works with collaborating organizations to activate the program, using an implementation science approach to customize care processes and clinical workflows to optimize performance, said Amato.
Here are the “AMA MAP Hypertension Learning Series” webinars that highlight the major components of the program and how it can guide BP-control rate improvements.
An overview of the AMA MAP Hypertension program
- In the first webinar, Amato and Glueck explain how the AMA MAP Hypertension Program’s specific metrics can guide blood pressure control through action steps, quality improvement coaching, performance metrics and other tools and resources. Speakers also discuss the functionality of i2iTracks that can assist health care organizations in effectively managing patients with hypertension.
Measure accurately and partner with patients
- Glueck joins Linda Murakami, RN, BSN, MSHA, AMA’s senior program manager for quality improvement, for the second session, which focuses on two critical components of AMA MAP: measure accurately and partner with patients. Speakers discuss the process metrics used to assess care team performance when measuring blood pressure accurately and partnering with patients.
- Participants learn how these metrics, when combined with specific interventions, can significantly improve blood pressure control. The patient visit summary protocol, for example, can be a powerful tool, as it includes trended blood pressures over time, said Glueck. The patient, physician and care team can look at a copy of this summary to track blood pressure improvement over time. Speakers also provided tips on how to apply i2iTracks functionality to enhance analysis of the population’s health.
Act rapidly to improve BP control
- For the third webinar, Glueck co-presents with Klodiana Myftari, PharmD, AMA’s director of clinical pharmacy relations, to discuss the act rapidly component of the AMA MAP Hypertension Program. Act rapidly combats treatment inertia by supporting prescribers to Initiate and intensify treatment when indicated for all patients with uncontrolled blood pressure. This involves using combination therapy, preferably single pill combination therapy, and using a hypertension medication treatment protocol, said Myftari.
- Speakers also discuss how these protocols can aid in the swift and effective treatment of high blood pressure and demonstrate how to integrate the use of i2iTracks reports to enable prescribers to achieve measurable treatment results for patients over time.
With the AMA MAP program, health care organizations can increase BP-control rates quickly. The program has demonstrated a 10% increase in BP control in six months with sustained results at one year.
