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Telemedicine and M-Health in Hypertension Management: Technologies, Applications and Clinical Evidence

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Abstract

Electronic processes and communication technologies are more and more often employed to provide healthcare services to caregivers and their patients. Such solutions are currently referred as e-health, the most popular and widely distributed being those based on telemedicine and mobile health (m-health). A specific application of telemedicine for hypertension management is blood pressure telemonitoring (BPT), which allows remote data transmission of BP and additional information on patients’ health status from their living site or from a community setting to the doctor’s office or the hospital. Several randomized studies have documented a significant BP reduction with regular BPT compared to usual care, particularly in high risk hypertensive patients. Additional benefits are observed when BPT is offered under the supervision of a team of healthcare professionals, including a community pharmacist. BPT may also be provided in the context of m-health solutions, which commonly include wireless diagnostic and clinical decision support tools. M-health has the potential to promote patient’s self-management, as a complement to the doctor’s intervention, and encourage greater participation in medical decision making. Current statistics show that half of smartphone owners gather health information through their phone and 19 % use a health app. In case of hypertensive patients the most popular apps are those with tracking function, including BPT. Thus, e-health, and in particular BPT and m-health, are progressively gaining a key role in the management of hypertensive patients, having the potential to improve the quality of the delivered care and to more effectively prevent cardiovascular consequences of high BP.

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(redrawn from [33] by permission)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Clinical Research Unit, Italian Institute of Telemedicine, Via Colombera 29, 21048, Solbiate Arno, Varese, Italy

    Stefano Omboni, Marina Caserini & Claudio Coronetti

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  1. Stefano Omboni
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  2. Marina Caserini
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  3. Claudio Coronetti
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Correspondence to Stefano Omboni.

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Disclosure

SO received consultancy fees from Biotechmed Ltd., provider of telemedicine services, and from Microlife, manufacturer of blood pressure measuring devices. None of the other authors has any conflict of interest to declare.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.

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Omboni, S., Caserini, M. & Coronetti, C. Telemedicine and M-Health in Hypertension Management: Technologies, Applications and Clinical Evidence. High Blood Press Cardiovasc Prev 23, 187–196 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40292-016-0143-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40292-016-0143-6

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