# NIH grant: Improving Cardiovascular Futures Through Timely Identification and Management of Hypertension in Youth (1K01HL186068-01) — retained record

> Retained us-gov-api record from us-gov-api:nih-reporter.

Canonical: https://highsignal.app/data/records/ab37e2cfd8ea5e5d

[← sources](https://highsignal.app/data)


source: [us-gov-api](https://highsignal.app/data/us-gov-api) (us-gov-api:nih-reporter)  published 2026-08-01 00:00 ingested 2026-08-03 09:17

[original source ↗](https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/1K01HL186068-01)

## retained text



```
NIH grant 1K01HL186068-01: Improving Cardiovascular Futures Through Timely Identification and Management of Hypertension in Youth
Institute: {'code': 'HL', 'abbreviation': 'NHLBI', 'name': 'National Heart Lung and Blood Institute', 'admin_org_id': '12500068', 'admin_funding_url': ''}. PI: Melissa  Goulding. Award: $173929.
Start: 2026-08-01T00:00:00.
PROJECT ABSTRACT
Cardiovascular disease risk trajectories begin in childhood and the need for prevention efforts to take a life
course approach is clear. Yet, efforts to identify and manage cardiovascular risk factors in youth including
hypertension, which impacts 1.3 million youth, are limited. This Mentored Research Scientist Development
Award (K01) supports the training and research of Dr. Goulding, an Assistant Professor at UMass Chan
Medical School. As a behavioral epidemiologist and applied public health researcher, Dr. Goulding’s long-term
career goal is to build an empirical basis for the implementation of evidence-based practices and interventions
to promote optimal cardiovascular health in youth. In support of this goal, this award provides training and
mentorship through which Dr. Goulding will obtain the expertise and skills to develop behavioral interventions
and implementation strategies and to design, conduct, and evaluate trials investigating them. Additionally she
will gain understanding of clinical cardiovascular health management in youth and advance her leadership
skillset. Training activities include didactic coursework, seminars, conferences, and experiential learning
supported by a transdisciplinary mentorship team with expertise in behavioral and implementation sciences,
prevention, pediatrics, biostatistics, and research trials. A clinical advisory board with expertise in pediatrics
and hypertension, community based nursing, and health informatics will also guide the research. Youth with
hypertension have 2-3 times greater risk of adverse cardiovascular outcomes including stroke and myocardial
infarction in adulthood. The American Academy of Pediatrics has clinical practice guidelines recommending
regular blood pressure screening and follow-up in youth to combat this risk. However, most cases of pediatric
hypertension are not diagnosed due to a lack of recommended follow-up after high blood pressure screenings.
This K01 research will support Dr. Goulding to co-develop and pilot a pediatric clinic-based implementation
program, BP-Link, to increase adherence to clinical practice guidelines for follow-up blood pressure
screenings. Based on Dr. Goulding’s prior research, BP-Link will include electronic health record changes,
parent education and a menu of follow-up options. In Aim 1, we will use a stakeholder engaged implementation
mapping approach to refine and co-develop the BP-Link implementation program. We will then pilot BP-Link in
pediatric clinics using a parallel cluster randomized design. In Aim 2, we will use convergent mixed-methods to
evaluate process outcomes from clinic providers, clinic support staff, and parent perspectives. Lastly, in Aim 3
we will establish feasibility for a full scale trial by evaluating BP-Link’s protocol and by using electronic health
record data to explore child-level effectiveness outcomes. This work will inform a fully powered trial of BP-Link,
a scalable implementation program with promise to improve cardiovascular health across the lifespan through
early identification and subsequent management of pediatric hypertension. The research, training, and
mentorship of this K01 are pivotal to Dr. Goulding’s development as an independent research scientist.
```



document fetched 2026-08-09 06:52