Connected-BP: A Remote Blood Pressure Monitoring Program

Hypertension (HTN) is a common comorbidity and contributor to atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD), accounting for more ASCVD deaths than any other modifiable risk factor. For many patients living with hypertension, it can be inconvenient for patients to visit their healthcare providers to manage their high blood pressure. Office BP assessment is known as inaccurate and likely leads to suboptimal management of HTN. These low-level visits for blood pressure management are an inefficient use of staffing and resources for providers. Therefore, Penn's Center for Digital Cardiology has created a solution for patients to monitor their blood pressure from home.

With Connected-BP, patients will take their blood pressure twice each day for 3 days per week over an initial 2-week period of time. Patients will document and transmit the BP readings via their phone, and the BP readings of each patient will populate into EPIC. The provider has the ability to monitor their patient's condition as well as determine next steps in their plan of care.

Throughout this program, PCDC's team will support clinical and technical patient education and enrollment. This includes education on how to properly check your BP, confirmation the patient has a BP cuff, and routing clinical alerts, BP data summaries and urgent clinical questions to providers and their teams in EPIC.