London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Global hypertension treatment and control rates remain far from optimal, and newer clinical practice guidelines recommend even lower treatment targets for patients eligible for drug treatment.  Combination therapy has been the backbone of treatment scale-up for HIV, TB, and malaria and is gaining traction within global hypertension treatment programs. With so many blood pressure drug classes available, what’s the best combination?  If 3 halves are greater than 1, then what about 4 fourths? During this session, I will discuss role of combination therapy in improving adherence, efficacy, and system-level efficiency, ongoing clinical trials that aim to test new combinations and their implementation in clinical practice, and future strategies to improve delivery of these essential medicines.

Information about speaker:  

Mark is the Quentin D. Young Professor of Health Policy and Associate Professor of Preventive Medicine and Medicine-Cardiology at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine with a secondary appointment as a Professorial Fellow at The George Institute for Global Health.  He is a practicing cardiologist, researcher, and teacher interested in global cardiovascular epidemiology, clinical trials, implementation science, health systems and policy research and training.  He works across the spectrum of cardiovascular disease prevention in research on acute cardiovascular quality improvement, simplifying pharmacotherapy, monitoring and improving the food supply, and achieving tobacco endgame.  He aims to improve global cardiovascular health and health care, especially in low- and middle-income countries, and to bring lessons learned back home to the United States.

Mark has a unique combination of clinical, methodological and global health experience which makes him one of the rising stars in global cardiovascular health. A former Fogarty global health fellow, founder of Cochrane Heart Group US Satellite and the leader of the World Heart Federation Emerging Leaders Programme, Mark is an inspiring leader and speaker and he will be sharing a very exciting and innovative approach to manage hypertension through combination therapy.

Mark will be introduced by Shah Ebrahim, who will also chair the Q&A after the talk.