Improving Pediatric Blood Pressure Screening among Primary Care Providers in Ontario

POPLAR is pleased to support a clinical research project led by Dr. Rahul Chanchlani at

McMaster University. Below is a summary of Dr. Chanchlani’s project: High blood pressure (also known as hypertension) is becoming more common in children. If it isn’t caught early, it can lead to serious health problems like kidney or heart disease later in life.

Currently in Canada, less than 1 in 4 children get their blood pressure checked by their doctor or nurses, even though national guidelines recommend yearly checks starting at age three. We don’t fully understand what’s stopping healthcare providers from doing these checks—or what might help them do it more often.

To close this gap, we’re working with six family health clinics across Ontario, as well as a network of healthcare providers, researchers, parents, and experts in putting research into practice. Our project aims to understand why these screenings aren’t happening more often and how we can improve the situation in Ontario.

We have three main goals:

1. Understand the problem: We’ll talk to doctors and nurses in the Ontario-wide POPLAR network to learn about what’s helping—or getting in the way of—blood pressure checks for children.

2. Create solutions: Based on what we learn, we’ll design strategies to make it easier for healthcare providers to screen for high blood pressure.

3. Test our plan: We’ll try out our strategies in two family health clinics to see how well it works and what we can improve.

This project is an important first step toward making blood pressure checks a regular part of children's healthcare in Ontario.

For more information on this research project, please contact Dr. Chanchlani at:

chanchlr@mcmaster.ca