Hypertension Intervention Nurse Telemedicine Study (HINTS)

There are 65 million Americans and over 8.5 million veterans who have been diagnosed with hypertension; yet only 31% of all hypertensive patients have their blood pressure (BP) under effective control (less than 140/90 mm/Hg). Uncontrolled hypertension greatly increases the risk of cerebral vascular accidents, coronary artery disease, myocardial infarction, renal failure, congestive heart failure, and mortality. Despite the damaging impact of hypertension and the availability of well-defined therapies and widely accepted target values for BP, interventions to improve BP control have had limited success.