Aims and Key Action Plan for America RAG 2025-2026

Prepared by: 

Dagnovar Aristizabal, MD– RAG Chair, Medellin, Colombia

1. Digital Health and Community Empowerment

Objective: Strengthen preventive strategies and health education through digital platforms, particularly for underserved communities.

Key Actions & Impact:

• Community-Level Training: Providing educational resources for non-medical personnel (teachers, community leaders, health promoters) to act as hypertension awareness multipliers within their localities.

• Digital Learning Ecosystem: Integrating hypertension-related content into mobile apps and web platforms to facilitate self-learning for patients and families. Continue the biennial advanced course on arterial hypertension (SAHA-ISH). Include pediatric and female segments.

• Professional Education: Launch of digital ABPM courses tailored to local clinical needs (Internal Medicine, Nephrology), enabling better diagnostic capacity and guideline-based practice.

• Self-care Promotion: School campaigns like “Take care of you, I need you” aim tohumanize health messages, creating emotional engagement and behavior change.

2. Artificial Intelligence in Hypertension – Research & Strategy

Objective:

Harness AI to modernize hypertension management through scalable, equitable, and context-sensitive innovations.

Key Actions & Impact:

• Survey-Based Insights: Run a regional survey evaluating barriers, facilitators, and readiness for AI adoption in hypertension care—informing policy and education priorities.

• AI Governance Framework: Establishing principles for the ethical, transparent, and equitable use of AI in clinical care, addressing regulatory, privacy, and trust issues.

• Strategic Leadership: Positioning Latin America as a contributor—not just a consumer—of AI-driven cardiovascular research, by leveraging local data and talent.

• Call to Action: Engage health systems, academic societies, and government stakeholders to co-develop a roadmap that ensures AI is trustworthy, inclusive, and outcome- focused.

3. ECG-Based Predictive Models

Objective: Advance the role of the electrocardiogram (ECG) as a cornerstone in cardiovascular risk stratification using AI augmentation.

Key Actions & Impact:

• Non-Invasive Precision Medicine: ECG is one of the most accessible diagnostic tools worldwide; enhancing its utility with AI expands the reach of precision care even in low- resource settings.

• Unified Risk Models: Integration of ECG parameters into composite risk scores validated for hypertension and cardiometabolic complications.

• Scientific Leadership: Ongoing collaborations with SICOR and use of NHANES datasets for:

  • Heart age estimation

  • MACE prediction from historical ECG and baseline risk factors

  • Validation of AI-ECG age gap as a biomarker for vascular aging

• Translational Pathway: Bridging the gap between algorithm development and clinical implementation—ensuring models are interpretable, scalable, and regulatable.

4. Creation of a Latin American Risk Score

Objective: Develop a regionally calibrated cardiovascular risk prediction model adapted to Latin America’s unique epidemiological and demographic profile.

Key Actions & Impact:

• Limitations of Global Scores: Traditional models (Framingham, SCORE, PREVENT,etc.) underestimate risk in younger or socially disadvantaged populations common in Latin America.

• AI-Enhanced Solutions: Using machine learning to create dynamic, cumulative risk profiles that evolve with patient data, clinical trajectories, and socio-behavioral context.

• Core Innovation: ECG-based biological age ("Heart Age Gap") emerges as a non-invasive surrogate of vascular health, enabling earlier intervention.

• Research Infrastructure: Retrospective cohort analyses (5–10 years ECG data) and prospective validations using local registries will ensure model accuracy and external validity.

5. Screening Strategies for Hypertension Prevention and Management With New Technologies

Vision: Drive the adoption of AI-enabled tools and integrated, adaptive screening strategies to reshape hypertension prevention and management across Latin America.

Strategic Priorities:

• Collaborative Infrastructure: Strengthen partnerships among academia, industry, professional societies, and health systems to co-develop scalable technologies and support innovation across different healthcare contexts.

• Data-Driven Capacity Building: Equip clinicians, researchers, and public health leaders with digital health and data science training to drive regional innovation.

• Integrated Screening Strategies for Hypertension: The future of hypertension detection depends on a multilayered approach tailored to different population groups and care settings, which includes:

  • Opportunistic screening.

  • Home blood pressure monitoring.

  • Systematic community screening (e.g., in schools, workplaces, public events).

  • Wearables and mobile health applications.

  • AI-driven risk prediction models.

  • Digital health coaching, through automated education and behavioral reinforcement platforms.

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