Abstract Body: Introduction/Background: The American Heart Association’s National Hypertension Control Initiative (NHCI) collaborated with public health champions by participating in Learning Collaboratives (LC) in five regions across the United States to address hypertension through LC groups that facilitated the exchange of best practices and lessons learned. LCs convene stakeholders for expert-led sessions to promote collaboration in the health care ecosystem.
Research Questions/Hypothesis: LCs can be an effective way for national initiatives to convene in expert-led sessions on best practices in hypertension control, including the advancement of Community-Clinical Linkages (CCL) by fostering collaboration among diverse health care stakeholders.
Methods/Approach: NHCI planned to convene stakeholders in 5 regions to learn how they operationalized the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CCL approach. Areas were chosen based on criteria such as highly engaged NHCI Community Health Centers, NHCI funded community-based organizations with strong administrative capacity, a robust community health worker network, and active Primary Care Associations. Local assessments conducted during the planning phase led NHCI to pivot and collaborate with existing LCs instead of initiating new ones. During these LCs, NHCI conducted listening sessions to enhance collaboration and community-health center integration through knowledge exchange discussions and co-learning experiences.
Results/Data: NHCI staff worked with local field staff to understand community needs. They leveraged trusted relationships with public health champions to identify LCs for conducting listening sessions. The local field staffs’ strong relationships with public health advocates presented NHCI with opportunities to plan meetings to obtain the buy-in for the listening sessions. NHCI conducted 6 listening sessions in 5 regions. Engagement in local LCs provided insight on operationalizing CCLs to address hypertension. Stakeholders exchanged best practices, lessons learned, strategies, and social determinants of health to advance CCLs for hypertension control.
Conclusion(s): Leveraging trusted relationships and participating in existing LCs is key to conducting successful listening sessions around best practices in hypertension control, including the advancement of Community-Clinical Linkages.