Telemonitoring Blood Pressure by Secure Message on a Patient Portal: Use, Content, and Outcomes.

Area of Science:

• Digital Health
• Cardiovascular Medicine
• Health Informatics

Background:

• Patient portals facilitate asynchronous communication between patients and healthcare teams.
• Secure messaging allows for the transmission of patient-generated health data, including home blood pressure (BP) measurements.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the content and utility of secure messages containing home BP data.
• To identify limitations in using secure messages for BP management.
• To compare secure messaging with virtual visits for BP management.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective analysis of 52,373 secure messages.
• Text searches and manual review to identify BP-related messages.
• Independent physician review of a sample of messages and responses.

Main Results:

• 1.2% of messages contained home BP information; 365 users sent BP-related messages.
• Provider responses included medication changes (17%) or new prescriptions.
• Only 7% of BP data met American Heart Association criteria; 27% expressed concern about high BP.

Conclusions:

• Secure messages with BP data often lead to medication adjustments but have significant limitations.
• BP virtual visits (e-visits) with structured data requirements may be superior for BP management.
• Standardized data input for virtual visits could improve BP management efficacy.