Emory Global Diabetes Research Center Joins International Partnership to Transform Hypertension and Diabetes Care in Rural Africa

Researchers at The Emory Global Diabetes Research Center (EGDRC) have joined an international consortium to launch BEACON-HD, a new four-year initiative that will test innovative approaches to improving hypertension and type 2 diabetes care in rural Rwanda and Uganda.

Funded by the European Union's Horizon Europe program, the €3.9 million project, coordinated by the Technical University of Munich, brings together expertise from 12 leading institutions from Europe, the United States, Rwanda, and Uganda to evaluate whether telemedicine, patient self-monitoring, and community-based medication delivery can improve access to care for people living with chronic diseases in underserved communities.

The project will enroll approximately 4,480 participants across 160 villages in Rwanda and Uganda, making it one of the largest implementation studies of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa.

A Global Effort to Improve Hypertension and Diabetes Care  

"Millions of people living with hypertension and diabetes face significant barriers to accessing consistent, high-quality care," said Leslie Johnson, PhD, associate professor in the Emory Department of Family and Preventive Medicine. "BEACON-HD will help us understand how community-centered approaches can be integrated into existing health systems and provide policymakers with practical evidence to support equitable, scalable models of chronic disease care."

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death from noncommunicable diseases in sub-Saharan Africa with many rural communities facing barriers to ongoing hypertension and diabetes care, including limited health care access, long travel distances, and workforce shortages.  

To address these challenges, BEACON-HD will evaluate CarePulse, a telemedicine platform that enables patients to monitor their blood pressure and blood glucose at home while connecting them with clinicians for remote review. Community health workers will also provide medication delivery and follow-up care closer to patients' homes, reducing the need for frequent clinic visits.

The project will assess not only clinical outcomes but also implementation, cost-effectiveness, and health equity, providing evidence to inform future adoption within national health systems.

"Improving access to quality care for hypertension and diabetes requires innovative, community-centered solutions, said Mohammed K. Ali, MD, co-director of EGDRC. “Through this partnership, EGDRC will contribute its expertise to help develop and evaluate approaches that can improve care for rural Africa and underserved populations around the world."

The consortium includes representatives from: Emory University, Technical University of Munich, Northwestern University, the University of Global Health Equity, Makerere University, Partners In Health, Erasmus University Rotterdam, the University of Birmingham, the African Community Center for Social Sustainability, the Bavarian Research Alliance, InoSens, and bSpoke Solutions.