Delaware Implements Collaborative Communication Platform for Heart Health

August 10, 2026 | Shebra K. Hall

In 2023, about 37.8% of Delaware adults reported having high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. Hypertension affects men and women almost equally but tends to be a higher among non-Hispanic Black adults compared to non-Hispanic White adults. The likelihood of having high blood pressure increases with age, affecting about 10.5% of adults aged 18-34, rising to nearly 62% of those 65 and older. People with higher education and income levels tend to have lower rates of hypertension; 39.4% of adults with a high school diploma or GED reported high blood pressure, while the rate is 35.2% for those with a college degree. Similarly, nearly half of adults with household incomes between $25,000 and $34,999 reported hypertension, compared to under 29% for those earning over $200,000 annually. In the same year, about 43.6% of Delaware adults reported being diagnosed with high cholesterol, with similar rates between men and women. Non-Hispanic White adults reported higher rates of high cholesterol compared to Black adults. Like hypertension, high cholesterol becomes more common with age, affecting about 21% of adults aged 18-44 and over 53% of those 65 and older.

To address this burden, Delaware applied for and received funding from CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion to implement the National Cardiovascular Health Program. Recipients of this award must show they have conducted meaningful work to reduce hypertension and high blood cholesterol. One of the required activities in implementing the National Cardiovascular Health Program is joining an existing or creating a new cardiovascular health learning collaborative. Learning collaboratives facilitate health agencies’ communications and leverage resources to support programs focused on improving cardiovascular health outcomes overall and for those with or at highest risk of poor cardiovascular health outcomes. Learning collaboratives intervene on a clinical or community basis to address the root causes that impact health and well-being.

As part of the national program, Delaware established and launched the Delaware Cardiovascular Health Learning Collaborative in 2023. By 2025, following two years of strategic development, planning, and recruitment, the Delaware Cardiovascular Health Learning Collaborative evolved into a fully operational and influential network with 117 members statewide. This dynamic coalition represents health systems, community organizations, religious institutions, and clinical partners from across the state. The learning collaborative serves as a champion for cardiovascular issues, advances health for all, optimizes population health outcomes, improves incident response capabilities, and supports comprehensive disease management initiatives.

To anchor the learning collaborative’s operations and create a sustainable infrastructure, Delaware launched a new website, DelawareHeartCollaborative.org. This digital hub provides Delaware with the essential infrastructure needed to coordinate learning opportunities, centralize resources, and maintain a comprehensive calendar of events accessible statewide. The website also functions as a central hub for communication between the member organizations of the collaborative, fostering collaboration, reducing silos between stakeholders, and promoting a unified approach to cardiovascular health improvement through several key functions:

• Centralized Documentation and Knowledge Sharing: A shared digital workspace allows members to upload and access project plans, reports, updates, and resources, ensuring that everyone — regardless of their organization or location within the state — has immediate access to the latest information. This eliminates version control issues, reduces duplication of effort, and creates an institutional memory that persists even as individual members transition in and out of roles.
• Preventing Fragmentation and Increasing Engagement: Using the website as the primary communication platform helps the learning collaborative avoid fragmented communication. Instead of information being buried in emails, meeting notes, or scattered across channels, it provides a single, reliable source of information. This makes participation more accessible, increases engagement across workgroups, and lowers barriers to meaningful involvement.
• Active Collaboration Tools: A planned feature of the digital platform will enable members to co-create content, participate in discussion boards, and provide real-time feedback on initiatives and proposals. This functionality reduces the need for excessive meetings while still maintaining productive dialogue, allowing busy health care professionals and community partners to contribute meaningfully on their own schedules. The result is more inclusive participation and faster iteration on collaborative projects.
• Internal and External Engagement: The website will be able to host blogs, videos, and news feeds that will serve dual purposes — keeping internal teams aligned on priorities and progress while simultaneously updating external stakeholders on the collaborative's achievements and ongoing work. This dual-audience approach will build trust with the broader community, maintain consistent messaging about cardiovascular health priorities, and demonstrate accountability for the collaborative's commitments.
• Sharing Insights for Successful Implementation: Delaware’s goal in developing this platform was to intentionally provide relevant insights from various experiences and perspectives and to proactively share useful information to help others successfully implement communication strategies that promote collaboration with teams and stakeholders. Delaware talked to and reviewed other state learning collaboratives and asked about collaborative communication methods. Delaware saw how many states’ websites were used as communication tools to share information, data, resources, and best practices. For example, the Michigan Improving Cardiovascular Health Learning Collaborative uses its website to share their experiences, barriers, and improvements related to hypertension burden and control. Users can review past learning sessions, gather data, and gain other resources, including signing up for their newsletter. In another case, the Georgia Heart Health Learning Collaborative engages communities most affected by hypertension with a mobile, community-based care model, with clearly outlined steps and best practices. There were lessons learned in developing DelawareHeartCollaborative.org, including the importance of defining clear roles, building infrastructure, and simply the value of asynchronous collaboration tools. Delaware hopes to serve as a model for similar public health initiatives seeking to unite diverse partners around shared health improvement goals.

DelawareHeartCollaborative.org serves as a communication tool that promotes collaboration with the Delaware Cardiovascular Health Learning Collaborative members, workgroups, and other stakeholders. One already highly utilized feature on DelawareHeartCollaborative.org is the resource library, which includes current chronic disease resource guides, program information, and connections to mobile health units and state service centers, providing important health education and support services in Delaware. The Cardiovascular Health Learning Collaborative website efficiently connects the network of members into a cohesive force for cardiovascular health improvement across Delaware.