E-Pertension Study: Proof of Concept of an Enablement Suite for the Self-Measurement of Blood Pressure in Hypertensive Patients

Background: hypertension is a major health concern worldwide and is known as a “silent killer”. Patient’s therapeutic adherence is known to be low, thus its efficiency. A potential way to improve it, is to use blood pressure self-measurement in combination with “m-health” (mobile health: a combination of electronic systems and processes in healthcare with the smartphone technology [1]).

Aim: the study aimed at developing and evaluating, in terms of functionality, feasibility and performance, a digital platform to improve self-management of hypertensive patients.

Methods: the platform was developed in collaboration with Nokia Belgium. 8 hypertensive patients were recruited. Patients received a connected blood pressure monitor device in order to perform their self-measurements. The devices were synchronised with a smartphone application, the “Nokia Health Mate”, and the data collected in the smartphone application were transferred to the platform. The patients had to measure blood pressure twice a week during 8 weeks. They received reminders, warnings and/or encouraging messages according to the frequency of measurements and level of blood pressure.

Analysis: patients’ compliance to the protocol was relatively high with 223 out of 252 measures performed (88,5%). The platform was shown to be functional and efficient with 187 out of 223 measures correctly transferred (83,85%). Regarding blood pressure control, some trend to improvement could be observed. Regarding feasibility, 7 out of 8 patients found this system very helpful and were ready to extend this practice.

Conclusion: adherence to the protocol was high. Patients’ satisfaction was high or very high in terms of functionality and usefulness. The platform needs further development in order to prevent some issues encountered.

Keywords: arterial hypertension, adherence, self-measurement, connected device, home blood pressure monitoring, m-health.