It is almost mandatory to label increased blood pressure as a readily detectable and, importantly, preventable contributor to the global epidemic of cardiovascular disease. But there is often little appreciation of the barriers to providing even rudimentary health care in low-to-middle-income countries. A rising tide of hypertension linked to epidemiological transition in vulnerable urban communities, such as Soweto, South Africa, has been challenging when access to simple, reliable, and accurate devices to measure blood pressure—commonly enjoyed by clinicians in high-income countries—remains scarce.