A remote healthcare program aimed at managing patients’ blood pressure and cholesterol levels ended up significantly lowering blood pressure and LDL-cholesterol, according to researchers from Mass General Brigham.
The research team enrolled more than 10,000 participants from the Mass General Brigham system into the hypertension and cholesterol optimization program. The team reported that patients experienced reductions in high blood pressure and improvements in cholesterol levels.
The hypertension program enrolled 3,658 participants, and the lipid program enrolled 8,103 participants. More than 424,000 blood pressure readings and 139,000 laboratory reports were collected in the program. The average systolic blood pressure reduction was 9.7 mmHg in patients enrolled in the hypertension program, and the average cholesterol reduction was 37 mmHg.
“This study is one of the largest, if not the largest clinical implementation study in a health network,” said lead author Alexander Blood, of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
“We meet patients where they are,” Blood added. “We communicated with them and co-managed their health through the channels they preferred, including patient portals, text, email, or phone calls. This is how we imagine adapting many more of our systems in the future to meet patient needs.”
Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S. and around the world. Lowering high blood pressure and cholesterol could help to reduce morbidity and mortality, but frequent in-person visits to measure and manage these readouts can be a burden for patients, according to the researchers.
Over the past five years, the research team at Mass General Brigham developed a series of remotely delivered chronic disease management programs. They use digital solutions, such as digitally connected home blood pressure cuffs to adjust medications based on the patient’s response to therapy.
The research team enrolled participants, provided education, and sent home blood pressure monitoring devices, which automatically sent the blood pressure results back to the program.
Corresponding author Benjamin Scirica, also of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the Brigham, explained that managing hypertension and high cholesterol levels could help reduce cardiovascular events like heart attacks and strokes, and alleviate downstream health care costs — but future studies to assess the financial effects of the program are needed.
“We began this remote care delivery program before the pandemic began,” Scirica said. “And when the pandemic started, we saw a significant increase in our enrollment and a greater interest in the advantages of remote care. Patients want innovative solutions to more easily engage with the health system. Our program provides strong evidence that remote care can work and can make a difference in patients’ lives.”
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