Research Highlights:
Embargoed until 8 a.m. CT/9 a.m. ET, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024
CHICAGO, Sept. 5, 2024 — Up to 74% of adults with treatment-resistant high blood pressure were able to get their blood pressure below 140/90 mm HG within one year through a program combining remote blood pressure monitoring with pharmacist interactions, according to preliminary research presented at the American Heart Association’s Hypertension Scientific Sessions 2024 . The meeting is in Chicago, September 5-8, 2024, and is the premier scientific exchange focused on recent advances in basic and clinical research on high blood pressure and its relationship to cardiac and kidney disease, stroke, obesity and genetics.
The study targeted patients with blood pressure higher than 140/90 mmHg who were receiving care in clinics specializing in kidney conditions. The ConnectedCare365 Hypertension Management program provided people in central and northeast Pennsylvania communities with remote blood-pressure monitoring and other devices that transmit information to doctors. Patients were identified and enrolled through a centralized monitoring center, known as ConnectedCare365, to ensure consistent messaging and ample education on the devices and patient communication application. Doctors and pharmacists assigned by the program co-managed patient care and helped adjust medications for patients.
“In our study, we developed a program that builds off what others have done using telemonitoring and pharmacists,” said senior study author Alexander Chang, M.D., M.S., a nephrologist and associate professor in the department of nephrology and the department of population health sciences at Geisinger Health in Danville, Pennsylvania. “By deploying these extra resources to get blood pressure under control in high-risk patients and reducing hospitalizations, we are hoping that we can help provide more justification in expanding these types of programs.”
Notifications from the home blood pressure-monitoring devices were transmitted to the central monitoring center. During the first six months of the program, the notifications were first transmitted to doctors in collaboration with pharmacists through a virtual platform that connected to patients’ phones through an app, which connected to the devices over Bluetooth. Blood pressure measurements were assessed and blood pressure medications were prescribed and/or adjusted accordingly. During the second six months, the notifications were transmitted first to pharmacists, who co-managed blood pressure through a collaborative telehealth practice agreement. While patients were enrolled in the program, they also had real-time access to a nurse during business hours through a live chat feature in the central monitoring center.
Study results include:
“We know that home blood pressure monitoring can be done by patients accurately and can really help engage patients in their own health. However, we also know that these self-measured blood pressure readings often do not make it back to patients’ health care team, therefore, delays in adjusting medications are very common. This type of physician-pharmacist collaborative model with home blood pressure monitoring that is centrally received and monitored by the care team can help address these issues,” Chang said.
Study background and details:
The study’s strengths included its ability to review hospitalization data, inclusion of the pharmacists, the careful examination of the pharmacists’ role in this program and that it was conducted in a real-world setting, the authors noted. The study’s limitations included that patients were their own control group to determine the impact of the program and participants had to have internet access.
“This is an important program that allows for more efficient management of a high-risk patient group,” said Wanpen Vongpatanasin, M.D., FAHA, professor in the department of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, director of UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Hypertension Section in the division of cardiology and clinical chair of the Hypertension Scientific Sessions 2024 Executive Committee. “This program’s team-based care approach including a pharmacist remotely makes it a feasible option to increase access. In addition, the study’s findings signal a way to reduce hospitalization and to improve blood pressure, which is very encouraging.”
Note: Moderated Poster Presentation MP11 in Session MPS02 New Paradigm and Lessons learn from Hypertension Clinical Trials in 2024 is Friday, September 6, 2024 at 9:35 a.m. CT.
Co-authors, their disclosures and funding sources are listed in the abstract.
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