About this Clinical Practice Guideline This updated guideline represents a significant effort toward improving the screening, diagnosis, and management of HTN among patients who are eligible to receive care in the VA and/or DoD healthcare systems. As with other CPGs, however, challenges remain. These include evidence gaps, as well as ongoing needs to develop effective strategies for guideline implementation and to evaluate the effect of guideline adherence on clinical outcomes. This guideline is intended for VA and DoD healthcare primary care practitioners including physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, dietitians, pharmacists, social workers, and others involved in the team caring for patients with HTN. Additionally, this guideline is intended for those in community practice involved in the care of Service Members or Veterans with HTN. As elaborated in the qualifying statement on page one, this CPG is not intended to serve as a standard of care. Standards of care are determined based on all clinical data available for an individual patient and are subject to change as scientific knowledge and technology advance and patterns evolve. This CPG is based on information available through March 25, 2019 and is intended to provide a general guide to best practices. The guideline can assist care providers, but the use of a CPG must always be considered as a recommendation within the context of a variety of factors such as providers clinical judgment, patient values and preferences, state and federal legal statutes, ethical guidelines, professional standards, and healthcare system policies. A. Methods The current document is an update to the 2014 VA/DoD HTN CPG. The methodology used in developing the 2020 VA/DoD HTN CPG follows the Guideline for Guidelines, an internal document of the VA and DoD EBPWG that was updated in January 2019.[17] The Guideline for Guidelines can be downloaded from http://www.healthquality.va.gov/policy/index.asp. 