HEARTS Quality: A Policy Framework for Continuous Quality Improvement in Primary Health Care

HEARTS in the Americas, the largest-scale implementation of the global HEARTS initiative, has evolved into a comprehensive strategy for continuous quality improvement in primary health care services. Led by PAHO in collaboration with ministries of health across the Region, HEARTS promotes evidence-based clinical, managerial, and public policy interventions to improve access, coverage, and quality of care for cardiovascular, renal, and metabolic diseases.

Despite significant progress, multiple challenges persist, including fragmented care delivery, limited availability of validated blood pressure measurement devices, insufficient access to essential medicines, and still-weak quality assurance and quality improvement systems within primary health care.

The webinar "HEARTS Quality: A Policy Framework for Continuous Quality Improvement in Primary Health Care" presents the HEARTS Quality Model in the Americas, developed by PAHO and countries in the Region in response to these challenges, This model integrates global evidence and regional implementation lessons into a practical, actionable policy framework. Composed of eleven programmatic strategies and a continuous quality improvement methodology designed to accelerate and strengthen HEARTS implementation across integrated health service networks and primary health care settings. The model was recently published in The Lancet Regional Health Americas.