The guideline committee meetings were held virtually on a monthly basis from July 25, 2024, to Jan. 20, 2025. The committee reviewed the evidence from the source recommendations and made judgments about the effects of the interventions, feasibility, resources, patient values and preferences, and availability or accessibility issues. Each recommendation was discussed and either adapted or adopted. Consensus was desired; however, when a unanimous decision could not be reached, the committee voted, with consensus defined as more than 70%. We assigned the strength of each recommendation according to the GRADE framework, as strong (applying the terminology “recommended”) or conditional (applying the terminology “suggested”). 14 Further information on how each recommendation was adapted from the source guidelines is available in Appendix 1, Supplementary Tables 2–10.
In addition, the committee used HEARTS to develop streamlined algorithms for hypertension diagnosis and treatment to optimize implementation into the Canadian primary care setting, which incorporate and align with the recommendations in this guideline.8