Resolve to Save Lives Hypertension Initiative

Overview

Founded by Dr. Tom Frieden — former Director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and former Health Commissioner of New York City — Resolve to Save Lives has a singular focus: preventing deaths from cardiovascular disease at a global scale and saving 100 million lives along the way. Its approach is grounded in the understanding that most of those deaths are preventable, and that the barrier isn’t science. It’s access.

In rural Bangladesh, access means distance. Patients diagnosed with high blood pressure at district hospitals frequently never returned for follow-up care — not because they didn't want treatment, but because getting there was too far, too costly, and too hard to sustain.

Resolve to Save Lives built a model to close that gap. With support from the Atria Research and Global Health Institute (ARGHI), it has moved hypertension care out of crowded hospitals and into community clinics near patients' homes, keeping more people on treatment, and keeping blood pressure under control.

Our Connection

Our involvement is led by Khadija Rejto, Chair of Global Health at ARGHI, who brings two decades of experience in philanthropy and global health to the work of expanding access to preventive care worldwide.

Impact

The core insight behind the Bangladesh HEARTS program — Resolve to Save Lives' hypertension initiative operating in rural Sylhet — is simple: if patients can't get to care, bring care to them. Beginning in 2023, the program began moving hypertension services for stably treated patients out of crowded district hospitals and into community clinics located near patients' homes — a model known as decentralization.

The results have been significant. Blood pressure control has been maintained in participating patients. Medication adherence has improved. And the model has grown from 107 community clinics in the rural Sylhet region to more than 500.

When care is close, people come back. And when people come back, lives are saved.

The Work

Resolve to Save Lives partnered with Bangladesh's Community Clinic Health Support Trust to place monthly blood pressure monitoring and prescription refills inside community clinics — staffed by Community Health Care Providers trained to measure blood pressure, manage medication refills, and educate patients about hypertension and its treatment. Patient data is tracked through a digital hypertension management platform, and clinical oversight is maintained remotely by medical officers at district hospitals.

The model works in both directions. Patients with stable blood pressure receive consistent care close to home. Medical officers at district hospitals gain capacity to focus on uncontrolled cases and complex conditions. The result is a better-distributed system — and more people staying on the path to blood pressure control.

Looking Ahead

The expansion from 107 to more than 500 community clinics demonstrates what becomes possible when a proven model is resourced to grow. ARGHI's support is aimed at sustaining that momentum — and at demonstrating that decentralized, community-based care can serve as a model for hypertension management far beyond Bangladesh.

Partners and Collaborators

Resolve to Save Lives · National Heart Foundation of Bangladesh · Bangladesh Ministry of Health and Family Welfare · Community Clinic Health Support Trust