Monitoring Blood Pressure

Article Citation: 

Grant, S., Hodgkinson, J. A., Milner, S. L., Martin, U., Tompson, A., Hobbs, F. R., ... & Greenfield, S. M. (2016). Patients’ and clinicians’ views on the optimum schedules for self-monitoring of blood pressure: a qualitative focus group and interview study.  British Journal of General Practice ,  66 (652), e819-e830. 

Annotation: 

With current lifestyle changes, high blood pressure is becoming one of the global health problem affecting the people particularly adult. The high number of high blood pressure cases across the globe has prompted the need to offer health education as a way of promoting self-monitoring of hypertension. This article is about the research conducted by Grant et al. (2016) on the views of clinicians and patients regarding the schedules for blood pressure self-monitoring. The purpose of the research was to explore the views and experiences of health professionals and patients on the use of self-monitoring schedules for high blood pressure. A total of 66 participants took part in the study including 25 healthcare professionals and 41 patients. The participants were interviewed to gauge their views on self-monitoring protocols and the feedback recorded and transcribed for comparative data analysis. The results showed that patients were generally in support of structured self-monitoring schedules. The patients preferred a flexible and shorter regimens that could easily fit into an individual routine. Even the healthcare professionals were not specific to the preferred self-monitoring schedules, they highlighted the benefits of making schedules to patients. In conclusion, both healthcare professionals and patients supported the use of self-monitoring schedules as the preferred way of managing high blood pressure at home. 

Article Citation: 

Omboni, S., Tenti, M., & Coronetti, C. (2019). Physician–pharmacist collaborative practice and telehealth may transform hypertension management. Journal of Human Hypertension, 33(3), 177-187. 

Annotation: 

This article is about the collaborative practices between pharmacists and physicians and how such collaborations could help in transforming the management of hypertension. The study’s aim is to explore the impact of telehealth and pharmacist-physician collaboration in transforming high blood pressure management. According to Ombpni et al. (2019), community pharmacists perform a key role in managing high blood pressure among home-based care patients. Community pharmacist offer medication monitoring, education services and blood pressure measurements to patients. They also identify cardiovascular risk factors that could affect the patients and ensure the hypertensive patients adhere to treatment guidelines. The authors believe that the collaboration of pharmacists and physician could bring a big improvement to hypertensive management and promote patient’s health. They further argue that the inclusion of telehealth in high blood pressure management could benefits patients as it will enhance efficient and effective communication between the physicians and the patients as well as pharmacists. Based on the randomized controlled study, telemonitoring and tele pharmacy services have a huge impact in the control and management of blood pressure. 

3. Article Citation: 

Rhoads, S. J., Serrano, C. I., Lynch, C. E., Ounpraseuth, S. T., Gauss, C. H., Payakachat, N., ... & Eswaran, H. (2017). Exploring implementation of m-health monitoring in postpartum women with hypertension. Telemedicine and e-Health, 23(10), 833-841. 

Annotation: 

This article by Rhoads et al. (2017) is about the examination of m-health monitoring implementation among the postpartum women with high blood pressure. The study is specific to preeclampsia, a pregnancy related disorder that is associated with high blood pressure hence requires a close monitoring during postpartum and pregnancy period. The research aimed at identifying and examining possible factors that could influence the use the application of m-health technology in monitoring preeclampsia related symptoms among postpartum women. A total of 48 women participated in the study and among the participants, a section received the m health devices for monitoring their blood pressure, pulse, oxygen saturation and weight for a period of two weeks. The other group of the participants were not given the m-health devices. The devices reading was monitored from nurse call center who contacted the participants appropriately. The result showed that the women who were using m-health technology had recorded a higher level of technology benefits, lower technology barriers levels and higher conditions score as compared to participants who did not use the technology. Based on study outcome, it was concluded that m-health technology could be beneficial to hypertensive women during pregnancy and postpartum period.