Carol D.

Carol D. has over 14 years of experience in software quality assurance engineering. Carol began their career in 2006 at Merge Healthcare, an IBM Company, as a Software QA Engineer. In this role, they participated in daily scrum team meetings and test plan reviews to verify whether test plans correlated to requirements, ensured sufficiency of test steps to validate requirements, and maintained a test data repository for issues to be retested when fixed and maintained a test environment. In 2013, they moved to NextGen Healthcare as a Senior Software Quality Assurance Engineer, where they validated reports via ad hoc SQL on raw data, compared to functional-based results, conducted test case reviews to ensure accurate capture of business functionality for test scenarios, and analyzed test results and identified and documented product defects with Jira. In 2019, Carol began working at ESCO Corporation as a Sr. Software QA Engineer, where they developed new automation testing and managed automated software testing processes and tools for the smart products software team, evaluated product functionality and created test strategies, test plans, and test cases to assess product quality, and developed detailed, comprehensive, and well-structured test plans, test cases, automated services, and reports that covered all aspects of IoT system software development. Most recently, in 2020, Carol joined BlueVolt as a Lead Software QA Engineer, where they are responsible for designing and implementing a test automation framework, managing automated software testing processes and tools for the LMS, and evaluating product functionality and developing and managing detailed, comprehensive, and well-structured test strategies, test plans, and test cases to assess product quality.

The American College of Cardiology (ACC) and the American Heart Association (AHA) have released the 2017 Guideline for the Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Management of High Blood Pressure in Adults. This guideline is an update to the 2014 Guideline for the Management of High Blood Pressure in Adults.

The 2017 Guideline is intended to provide clinicians with an evidence-based approach to the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of hypertension in adults. The guideline includes recommendations for lifestyle modifications, pharmacologic therapies, and monitoring of blood pressure.

The 2017 Guideline recommends that adults with a systolic blood pressure (SBP) of 130 mm Hg or higher or a diastolic blood pressure (DBP) of 80 mm Hg or higher should be diagnosed with hypertension. The guideline also recommends that adults with an SBP of 120-129 mm Hg and a DBP of less than 80 mm Hg should be classified as having elevated blood pressure.

The 2017 Guideline recommends lifestyle modifications, such as weight loss, physical activity, and dietary changes, as the first line of treatment for adults with elevated or high blood pressure. Pharmacologic therapy should be considered for adults with elevated or high blood pressure who do not respond to lifestyle modifications. The guideline recommends that pharmacologic therapy should be tailored to the individual patient and should include a combination of two or more medications.

The 2017 Guideline also recommends that clinicians should monitor blood pressure in all adults with elevated or high blood pressure. Blood pressure should be monitored at least every 3-6 months, and more frequently if necessary.

The 2017 Guideline provides clinicians with evidence-based recommendations for the diagnosis, evaluation, and treatment of hypertension in adults. The guideline should be used in conjunction with clinical judgment and individual patient characteristics to provide the best possible care for patients with hypertension.