Community Pharmacy and Blood Pressure Control

Widespread, effective identification and management of uncontrolled hypertension remains elusive, undermining our ability to reduce the impact of stroke and heart disease. The statistics are widely appreciated: ≈30% of North Americans have hypertension, and almost half of this hypertension is uncontrolled. Nearly 1000 people a day die of complications attributed to hypertension, and direct and indirect costs amount to $46 billion a year in the United States alone.1 Effective management of blood pressure for the 70 million adults in the United States who currently have hypertension would clearly overwhelm our existing primary care system. There are already ≈39 million physician office visits for essential hypertension per year.2Article see p 93 Fortunately, help is available. Community pharmacies are one of the most widely available healthcare resources in North America.3 A substantial body of research has been emerged over the past 20 years documenting the effectiveness of team-based approaches that incorporate pharmacists. Indeed, these approaches have been summarized in several systematic reviews and meta-analyses including the recent Community Guide prepared for the US Preventive Services Task Force.4–6 Across the variety of interventions tested, the …