The Canadian Hypertension Education Program--a unique Canadian initiative

While almost two-thirds of all strokes and one-half of all myocardial infarctions could be prevented if hypertensive individuals had their blood pressures optimally controlled, only a minority of hypertensive individuals (even in publicly funded health care systems with subsidization of medication costs) achieve target blood pressures. Traditional hypertension guidelines have had limited impact on hypertension management and control rates. As a result, the Canadian Hypertension Education Program was developed to address the perceived flaws in the traditional hypertension guideline approach. In the present article, the key features of the Canadian Hypertension Education Program methodology are reviewed, with attention to those factors thought to be critical to the successful translation of recommendations into practice.