Project Grant R01HL184152

The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute awarded Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai $672,958 on September 1, 2026, under the Cardiovascular Diseases Research program (CFDA 93.837) to conduct research on task-shifting models for hypertension care in low-resource rural settings.

The research project, titled "Task-Shifting at the Doorstep of the People: Strengthening the Hypertension Care Continuum Within Primary Health Care in a Low-Resource Setting," develops and tests COMBINE, a 90-day nurse-led and community health worker–supported screening and treatment program adapted from Ghana's nationwide rural health system. The project addresses the hypertension care gap in rural America—where hypertension prevalence is higher and physician access is limited—by identifying effective, cost-effective, and scalable models that leverage nurses and community health workers in partnership with physicians, consistent with guidelines from the American Heart Association, American Medical Association, and Rural Health Transformation Program.

The award period runs through May 31, 2031, with place of performance in New York, New York. This is a Project Grant, a competitive research award evaluated on scientific merit, investigator qualifications, technical adequacy of design, facility resources, budget necessity, and relevance to NHLBI program objectives.