Newswise — ALEXANDRIA, VA – The American Medical Group Foundation (AMGF) today announced the results and impact of its inaugural Measure Up/Pressure Down® National Day of Action: Roll Up Your Sleeves! event. On May 15, during National High Blood Pressure Education Month, more than 70 campaign supporters across the country took an action for blood pressure control – including blood pressure screenings, materials dissemination, social media posts, web chats, website content updates, employee trainings, health fairs, and garnering media coverage – reaching 57.4 million Americans.

The Measure Up/Pressure Down® campaign encouraged key stakeholders – including medical groups, health systems, sponsors, partners, and other organizations – to “roll up their sleeves” on the same day in support of improving blood pressure control around the nation. As a result of this national call to action, the measureable impact of these efforts proved to be widely successful in reaching patients, providers, employees, and others and raising awareness about the importance of blood pressure control. National support and participation allowed Measure Up/Pressure Down® to educate millions of patients with or at risk of high blood pressure and empower these patients to actively manage their own health in conjunction with their healthcare team. The National Day of Action also engaged providers to better detect and treat high blood pressure in their patient populations through trainings, guideline implementation, patient engagement programs, and other evidence-based care processes.

“The American Medical Group Foundation is proud to lead the Measure Up/Pressure Down® National Day of Action and raise awareness of the disease,” says Donald W. Fisher, Ph.D., CAE, President and Chief Executive Officer of the American Medical Group Association (AMGA) and Secretary of the AMGF Board of Directors. “As we know, more than 68 million adults across the country have high blood pressure. Thanks to our National Day of Action efforts and the support of over 70 organizations, we successfully educated and encouraged 57.4 million Americans to understand the risk factors, know their numbers, and make changes to get in control of this silent killer.”

As part of its efforts, Measure Up/Pressure Down® mobilizes medical groups and health systems to achieve the goal of having 80 percent of their patients with high blood pressure under control by 2016. The central mission of the campaign is to encourage medical groups and organized systems of care to adopt one or more evidence-based care processes that lead to measurable improvements in high blood pressure outcomes. Nearly 150 AMGA medical groups and health systems delivering care to more than 42 million patients have joined Measure Up/Pressure Down®.

More than 40 of these participating medical groups and health systems joined the National Day of Action, including: Arch Health Partners, Austin Regional Clinic, Baptist Medical Group, The Baton Rouge Clinic, Centura Health Physician Group, Cleveland Clinic, Coastal Carolina Health Care, Colorado Springs Health Partners, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Clinic, Essentia Health, The Everett Clinic, HealthPartners, Inova Medical Group, INTEGRIS Medical Group, MedStar Physician Partners, Mercy Clinics East Division, Meridian Health Resources, Mid-Atlantic Permanente Group, Mount Kisco Medical Group, NEA Baptist, New West Physicians, Novant Medical Group, Oregon Medical Group, The Polyclinic, Premier Medical Associates, Prevea Health Services, PriMed Physicians, Quincy Medical Group, Rio Grande Primary Health Net, Riverside Medical Clinic, Rockford Health Physicians, Scripps Medical Foundation, Shannon Health System, Springfield Clinic, Summit Medical Group, Susquehanna Health Medical Group, UnityPoint Health, University of Utah Healthcare, USMD Holdings, Inc., Watson Clinic, Weill-Cornell Physician Organization, Wellmont Medical Associates, Westchester Health Associates, and Wilmington Health. A full list of other National Day of Action supporters, including campaign sponsors and partners, is available here.

Measure Up/Pressure Down® will host its second annual National Day of Action in May 2015.

For more information about the campaign, visit www.MeasureUpPressureDown.com.

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About the Measure Up/Pressure Down® CampaignThe American Medical Group Foundation (AMGF), the nonprofit arm of the American Medical Group Association, launched Measure Up/Pressure Down®, a three-year national campaign to improve care and reduce the burden of high blood pressure, on November 29, 2012. Measure Up/Pressure Down™ includes nearly 150 medical groups, health systems and national partners such as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Kaiser Permanente, and Geisinger Health System. The goal of the three-year campaign is to have 80 percent of high blood pressure patients in control of their condition by 2016. www.MeasureUpPressureDown.com

About AMGFThe American Medical Group Foundation (AMGF) is the 501(c)(3) affiliate of the American Medical Group Association and it supports and disseminates research on better ways to deliver health care that is scientifically sound and value-based. AMGF also develops and supports educational programs to enable all stakeholders-providers, payers, policymakers and patients to translate the evidence of what works best into everyday practice. www.amga.org/foundation

About AMGAThe American Medical Group Association (AMGA) is a 501(c)(6) trade association representing medical groups, health systems, and other organized systems of care, including some of the nation's largest, most prestigious integrated delivery systems. AMGA is a leading voice in advocating for efficient, team-based, and accountable care. AMGA members encompass all models of organized systems of care in the healthcare industry, including: physician-owned, independent group practices, integrated delivery systems, hospital-affiliated medical groups, independent practice associations (IPAs), academic and faculty practices, accountable care organizations, and high-performing health systems. More than 150,000 physicians practice in AMGA member organizations, providing healthcare services for 120 million patients (approximately one in three Americans). Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia, AMGA is the strategic partner for these organizations, providing a comprehensive package of benefits, including political advocacy, educational and networking programs, publications, benchmarking data services, and financial and operations assistance. www.amga.org