Clinical research shows that when people better manage their blood pressure measurements, they can significantly reduce their cardiovascular risk.
Patients who monitoring their blood pressure daily have seen a 20-25% decrease in risk for heart attacks, 35-40% risk reduction for strokes, and 50% reduction for heart failure. This is why the American Heart Association (AHA) recommends that hypertensive patients monitor their blood pressure daily. With remote patient monitoring (RPM), patient blood pressure readings are automatically and securely sent to their providers and care teams, making it easy for patients to meet the American Heart Association (AHA) recommendation for hypertensive patients to monitor their blood pressure each day. In fact, many practices have found their patients are more adherent to taking their blood pressure each day because they don’t have to manually write it down.
There is a growing body of clinical evidence that RPM can effectively and quickly improve patient outcomes because it gives providers real-time access to their patients’ health. Earlier this month, Mass General Brigham recently discussed their success with using RPM and the positive impact remote care made in their hypertension and cholesterol optimization programs.
One of the largest studies of its kind, the researchers enrolled more than 10,000 patients in their hypertension and cholesterol optimization program, and collected more than 424,000 blood pressure readings and 139,000 laboratory reports.
The results were impressive. Patients achieved a systolic blood pressure decline of 9.7 mmHg, and a cholesterol level decrease of 37 mmHg. Alexander Blood, the lead author from Brigham and Women’s Hospital Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, credits the success of RPM to the ability to access patients outside the four walls of the practice. “We meet the patients where they are. We communicated with them and co-managed their health through the channels they preferred, including patient portals, text, email, or phone calls.”
Optimize Health’s clients have also seen similar achievements when monitoring their patients with RPM. In less than three months, patients monitored through Optimize Health’s Clinical Monitoring Service achieved an 11-point decrease in systolic blood pressure measurements, and 7-point decrease in their diastolic blood pressure measurements.
At Optimize Health, we know that RPM is positively impacting real patients and improving their quality of life. For example, an Optimize Health nurse was monitoring a patient with hypertension who routinely took her readings and medication. Despite the adherence to her care plan, her blood pressure was persistently high. In ongoing conversations about her treatment plan, diet, and life, the nurse saw signs of anxiety and depression. She worked with the patient’s primary care physician to refer the patient for behavioral health services, and as the mental health issues were addressed, the patient’s blood pressure measurements also began to improve. By connecting patients and providers outside of regular office visits, providers can deliver proactive, preventative care.
By providing continuous, remote care, RPM improves patients’ lives. We are proud of the work our amazing nurses do every day to help their patients. If you want to learn more about how to improve hypertensive outcomes at your practice, check out our free Guide Remote Patient Monitoring for Cardiac Care: Improving Outcomes for Patients with Chronic Cardiac Conditions or schedule a free consultation with one of our RPM experts.