We all know what best-practice hypertension management looks like. But what happens when you have an overflowing waiting room, patients with multiple competing health issues, and hypertension is just one of many priorities? With only around 3 in 10 Australians treated for hypertension achieving blood pressure control, how can GPs make meaningful improvements in everyday practice?

In this practical interview we talk about real-world strategies that can help overcome common barriers, including treatment inertia, implementing automated office blood pressure monitoring (AOBP), using practice audits and recall systems, and simplifying treatment with single-pill combinations (SPCs). If you’re looking for practical ideas that can be implemented in a busy general practice, this interview is well worth a listen.

Tackling Hypertension Head-On Miniseries (Part 7)

Ready to confidently tackle hypertension in your everyday practice? In this episode of our hypertension miniseries, Dr Sneha Wadhwani and Dr Om Narayan use practical case studies to show how to reach BP targets in primary care. Learn when to step up treatment, how to use single-pill combinations effectively, and tips for using home and ambulatory monitoring to guide decisions.

Get clear, practical strategies to overcome therapeutic inertia and protect your patients from the risks of uncontrolled hypertension.

Tackling Hypertension Head-On Miniseries (Part 6): Could your hypertensive patients have a form of high blood pressure that’s often overlooked – but highly treatable? In this essential episode of our ‘Tackling Hypertension Head-on’ miniseries, we unpack primary aldosteronism – a condition that affects up to 1 in 10 patients with hypertension and yet is rarely screened for in general practice.

Despite its prevalence, primary aldosteronism is still considered rare in many textbooks. But the 2024 European Hypertension Guidelines are changing the narrative, now suggesting routine screening for all newly diagnosed hypertensive adults.

This is a must-listen for any GP wanting to stay ahead of the latest guidelines and improve long-term outcomes for patients with high blood pressure.

Welcome to Part 5 of our miniseries ‘Tackling Hypertension Head-On’.

For many years, updates on blood pressure-lowering medications were scarce. However, since 2018, significant changes to clinical guidelines have emerged, driven by new and important evidence. While Australian guidelines for hypertension management have yet to incorporate these changes, updates are expected in the next 1-2 years.

In this episode, we discuss the latest evidence on how to lower blood pressure effectively and reliably with medication.

Join us as we explore what these findings mean for the future of hypertension treatment and patient care.

Welcome to Part 4 of our miniseries ‘Tackling Hypertension Head-On’.

We are all aware of the traditional lifestyle recommendations in clinical guidelines, such as changing to a healthy diet, or doing more exercise, losing weight, and so on. We also know that patients often don’t want to increase their medication, but on the other hand find lifestyle changes hard.

So, are there some easy recommendations that we can make to our patients that can actually make a big difference?

In this interview we discuss the latest evidence for potassium-enriched salts and fibre in lowering blood pressure.

Tackling Hypertension Head-On – Miniseries, (Part 3): More than half of people with hypertension in Australia don’t even know it. The good news is, 87% of Australians visit their GP once a year, so in this interview we discuss how we can obtain accurate blood pressure (BP) measurements to reduce uncertainty and create confidence in treatment decisions. We cover validated protocols, common errors, practicalities of out of office measurements, and the future of BP measurement in clinical practice.

Tackling Hypertension Head-On Miniseries, (Part 2): In this interview, we focus on how to manage patients using cardiovascular risk-based approaches in light of traditional hypertension guidelines, and how these compare to the latest updates in international guidelines. Additionally, we delve into the ongoing development of tools designed to aid in addressing the challenges associated with hypertension management, offering an insight into what’s to come.

Tackling Hypertension Head-On – Miniseries, (Part 1): Raised blood pressure is the leading cause of death in the world resulting in almost 11 million deaths each year, or 30,000 deaths each day, and here in Australia, it is also the leading risk factor for death, yet 68% of people with hypertension are uncontrolled. The good news is, we have an excellent healthcare system, so there is really no reason why we cannot improve substantially to become among the best in the world in hypertension care! In part one of this series we discuss the goals of the newly established National Hypertension Taskforce of Australia, strategies for managing resistant hypertension, key issues of medication adherence, and new treatment options.