A study was published in the American Heart Association journal, Hypertension last week, found that pharmacist-managed home blood pressure telemonitoring and pharmacist management for 12 months lowered hypertension for two years.
Researchers also noted that study participants who were enrolled in telemonitoring were about half as likely to suffer from a heart attack or stroke compared to those receiving usual primary care.
The lead study author, Dr. Karen L. Margolis said in a statement that these findings were just a bit short of statistical significance, which means they could be due to chance. Though she mentioned, they were surprised that the figures on serious cardiovascular events indicated strongly to the benefit of the telemonitoring intervention.
Uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to serious medical consequences like, kidney damage, aneurysms, heart failure, stroke and eye damage. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that only about one in four adults suffering from hypertension have their condition under control.
The study authors noted that self-monitoring of blood pressure in the absence of additional support only gives moderate benefits, but patient support can result in lower and improved blood pressure.
Researchers combined home blood pressure telemonitoring with pharmacist care management to conduct this study.
The group of 450 patients in the telemonitoring group were asked to submit at least six blood pressure measurements every week by using an automated monitor that stored and transmitted data to a secure website through AMC Health.
In the initial six months, patients and pharmacists met every two weeks via telephone in order to review the data, lifestyle changes, discuss adherence to medication and talk about treatment issues until blood pressure control was sustained for six weeks. After which the frequency was reduced to monthly and then bimonthly.
Researchers found that telemonitoring, along with pharmacist care management, lowered blood pressure for a period of about two years as compared to usual primary care.
The researchers also observed that reduced cardiovascular events in the study group by about 50% over the time period of five years and this could, as noted, result in cost savings if the reduction doesn’t happen due to chance.
Remote patient monitoring could be a vital tool to safeguard individual health especially during the COVID-19 crisis, when patients are not able to readily seek in-person care.
Hypertension study, which was led by Margolis said that home blood pressure monitoring linked with treatment actions guided by the healthcare team delivered (telehealth support) remotely in between office visits had shown to lower blood pressure as compared to routine care and patients liked it.