Mobile Phone-Based Telemonitoring Improves Blood Pressure Control

Mobile Phone-Based Telemonitoring Improves Blood Pressure Control: An automated mobile phone-based telemonitoring system that actively engages patients in their care significantly improved blood pressure control among diabetes patients with uncontrolled hypertension. Patients received pre-programmed cell phones that automatically transmitted readings from a Bluetooth-enabled home blood pressure monitor. Feedback is provided on the cell phone screen, instantaneously reporting the current blood pressure along with messages ranging from congratulations to a prompt to take additional readings over a certain period to get a reliable overall reading. If the blood pressure values are too high, patients are asked to make a follow-up appointment with their physician. At 12 months, systolic blood pressure significantly dropped by 9.1 mm Hg in the telemonitoring group compared to a 1.6 mm Hg decrease in those monitoring their blood pressure at home in the standard manner. Blood pressure control was achieved in 37% of the phone-based telemonitoring patients and only 14.2% of the controls. Presented at the Annual AHA Meeting, Nov. 2010