Closing the Gap on Health Disparities in Hypertension Management (2025-2026)
In 2025-2026, this project team focused on learning about hypertension and lifestyle factors that influence blood pressure. Team members received education on the American Heart Association’s Life’s Essential 8 and also on motivational interviewing techniques.
Each team member was assigned a panel of 25-30 patients from Lincoln Community Health Center (Durham, NC) who were experiencing uncontrolled hypertension. Through telephone outreach, the team engaged patients in discussions about their health and helped the patients develop personalized health goals. Collectively, the undergraduate team reached 117 patients. Of those contacted, 43 participated in SMART goal setting (a framework that creates actionable and measurable plans by following the checklist “Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound”) or health goal referrals. As a result of these conversations, 45 additional referrals were made to local, community-based organizations that could help the patients with unmet social needs.
Team members also assisted with in-person hypertension education classes at Lincoln Community Health Center, as well as community outreach events focused on cardiovascular health, Life’s Essential 8 and blood pressure screenings.
Among patients who had a follow-up clinic visit after the outreach period, those who interacted with Bass Connections students demonstrated greater improvements in blood pressure compared with patients who did not participate in student outreach.
Timing
Summer 2025 – Summer 2026
Team Outputs
Closing the Gap on Health Disparity and Outcomes in Hypertension: Utilizing a Quality Improvement Method on Hypertension Management (Poster presentation at the Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Showcase, April 15, 2026)
Closing the Gap on Health Disparity and Outcomes in Hypertension: Utilizing a Quality Improvement Method on Hypertension Management (Presentation at MaryAnn Black Distinguished Health Equity Symposium 2026; Durham, NC; February, 2026)
Closing the Gap on Health Disparity and Outcomes in Hypertension: An Intervention to Improve Patient Engagement in Hypertension Management (Presentation at the American College of Preventive Medicine meeting; Baltimore, MD; May, 2026)
Caring for the Heart of Durham: A Community-Based Hypertension Outreach Program (Presentation at Duke Clinical & Translational Science Institute’s Trustworthy Translation – Stories of Today, Visions of Tomorrow symposium; Durham, NC; May, 2026)
Telephone Outreach and Skill-Based Group Education Improves Blood Pressure in Patients at a Community Health Center (Public Health Nursing, epub ahead of print, March 17, 2026)
Telephone Outreach Is Associated With Improved Blood Pressure in Patients at an Urban Community Health Center (Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, 2026 Jan-Dec, epub March 19, 2026)
Cardiovascular Risk Factors - Lifestyle Modifications (New England Journal of Medicine, May 28, 2026)
Cardiovascular Risk Factors – Hypertension (New England Journal of Medicine, May 28, 2026)
See related teams, Closing the Gap on Health Disparity and Outcomes in Hypertension (2024-2025) and Closing the Gap on Hypertension Management and Outcomes (2026-2027).