The core AUS HEARTS team met in Broken Hill on Tuesday 5 August for a full-day strategy meeting, facilitated by Rob Tassie, CEO of ACvA. This was followed by a meeting with local partners on Wednesday 6 August. The meetings were a valuable opportunity to learn from local health service providers and set the priorities and direction of AUS HEARTS. Key takeaways from the meeting included:

• A new approach to hypertension detection and management is needed and a change management process to ensure AUS HEARTS is successful.
• Listening to local partners, involving them in decision-making and cultivating relationships is critical.
• We need to focus on primary healthcare settings and people already engaged in the health system (community outreach can follow later).
• Be clear about our intention not to increase health professional workloads but work within the system to adapt and implement a standardised, evidence-based approach to hypertension care.
• We need to assess the value virtual/telehealth and remote monitoring can bring and how it can be incorporated into the clinical pathway.
• Work towards gaining consensus on a new multidisciplinary shared-care clinical pathway.

Thank you to our core team of investigators and partners who shared their insights and innovative ideas as we mapped out our strategic priorities. And special thanks to Rob Tassie for being our incredible facilitator.