Better Control of High Blood Pressure with At Home Monitoring

Uncontrolled blood pressure can increase the risk for possible heart attack and stroke.  A new study combined two interventions and examined whether they would help patients better control their blood pressure.  “We wanted to combine home blood pressure telemonitoring and pharmacist involvement in patients hypertension care.”  Dr. Karen Margolis from Healthpartners Institute for Education and Research along with her colleagues conducted a randomized clinical trial involving 450 patients with uncontrolled high blood pressure. One group monitored their blood pressure at home for a year. The results were shared with a pharmacist. The other patients went to appointments with their physicians, receiving usual care. “In the telemonitoring group more than twice as many patients were able to have their blood pressure under control at both six and 12 months, 70% kept their blood pressure control at 18 months, six months after the program ended.” The study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.