CHICAGO – Furthering its commitment to helping all adults manage their blood pressure (BP), the American Medical Association (AMA) today announced a new collaboration with Azara Healthcare. The new collaboration will allow Azara Healthcare to offer its extensive network of health care organizations access to AMA MAP BP™ metrics, which will help them view data trends among their patient populations and utilize actionable reports to more effectively manage patients with hypertension.

“Nearly half of all adults in the U.S. are living with high blood pressure, the nation’s number one risk factor for heart attack, stroke and premature death, yet the rate of people with controlled blood pressure has been declining in recent years. We know these statistics reflect the fact that many patients face a variety of barriers, including the COVID-19 pandemic, making it difficult to successfully manage the condition,” said AMA President Jack Resneck, Jr., M.D. “Through our work with organizations such as Azara Healthcare, we will be able to expand accessibility to the AMA MAP BP program to help many more health care organizations better partner with their patients to help them avoid the deadly consequences associated with high blood pressure, and ultimately improve health outcomes for patients across the nation.”

AMA MAP BP™ is an evidence-based quality improvement program aimed at ensuring physicians and health care organizations have access to the data and tools needed to achieve significant, sustained improvements in blood pressure control among their patients. The program name highlights the three key elements physicians and health care organizations should focus on, including Measure BP accurately to obtain actionable data, Act rapidly to make shared treatment decisions, and Partner with patients to support their self-management.

Through AMA and Azara Healthcare’s new collaboration, health care organizations will be able to access AMA MAP BP™ metrics & reports through Azara DRVS—a centralized, scalable data reporting and analytics platform for population health management and quality improvement. Azara DRVS’ detailed analytics allow care teams to access a more comprehensive view of their patient population, including the socio-economic challenges that their patients are experiencing. By combining this functionality with the AMA’s evidence-based MAP BP quality improvement program, the goal of the collaboration is to help produce meaningful improvement in clinical outcomes over time for all patients, improve quality scores and ultimately streamline reimbursement for health care organizations.  

“We are very excited to collaborate with the AMA for the opportunities it provides our clients to easily access actionable data—ultimately driving quality improvement and improving health outcomes for their patients with hypertension. This unique combination of evidence-based support and guidance enables providers and care teams to move the needle,” said Azara Healthcare’s Senior Vice President of Clinical Transformation LuAnn Kimker, RN, MSN. 

Since 2019, the AMA has worked with forty-six health care organizations across 20 states to help them implement AMA MAP BP™. By using AMA MAP BP™, these organizations—which include multi-state health systems, accountable care organizations, federally qualified health centers, and medical practices—have impacted hundreds of thousands of patients with high blood pressure. Most recently, the AMA announced its work with Cook County Health to implement the AMA MAP BP program, which helped lead to an improvement of blood pressure control rates by 13 percentage points in an initial cohort of the health system’s patients. The AMA is committed to improving the health of the nation by leading the charge to prevent and reduce the burden of chronic diseases, like cardiovascular disease. The AMA will continue to forge new collaborations and expand its efforts aimed at helping all adults meet their blood pressure goals to ensure patients live richer and fuller lives.