Dr. Tamás Joó, Vice President of the HMA, contributed as a co-author to a publication which was published in the journal Hypertonia & Nephrologia.
The study New Opportunities for Hypertension Screening and Management in General Practitioner Practice aimed to examine how restructuring a traditional general practitioner practice—by involving highly qualified healthcare professionals and increasing access to primary care—impacts hypertension diagnosis, antihypertensive medication prescriptions, and the detection and treatment of comorbidities.
By analyzing patient turnover and medication prescribing data from 2010 to 2022, the study compared the periods before and during the intervention (01/03/2018 – 28/02/2020 vs 01/03/2021 – 28/02/2023). While the prevalence of hypertension remained stable, the incidence of newly diagnosed cases and the proportion of treated patients increased from the age of 35. A significant rise was observed in newly diagnosed comorbidities and preventive care services, including blood pressure measurements, ECG recordings, ankle-brachial index measurements, and ABPM tests. Additionally, the prescription of combined ACE inhibitors, calcium-channel blockers, angiotensin receptor blockers, and dyslipidaemia therapies significantly increased.
The findings highlight that the main challenge in general practitioner care is not hypertension detection but its continuous, high-quality management, alongside the diagnosis of comorbidities and complication prevention. Expanding access through extended consultation hours and integrating Advanced Practice Nurses can lead to a breakthrough improvement in the efficiency and quality of primary care.
The publication in Hungarian is accessible on elitmed.hu website: https://elitmed.hu/en/publications/hypertension-and-nephrology/novel-approach-of-screening-and-chronic-care-of-hypertension-patients-in-pri-mary-care