Abacus introduces new e-blood pressure control system for hospitals

Abacus Health Solutions (www.abacushealth.com) has developed a new e-health enabled blood pressure monitoring and feedback system to improve health outcomes for hospital specialty clinics. The system is being deployed in the outpatient setting to support accountable care, enable meaningful use of HIT for both providers and patients, and drive revenue from encounters and specialty medication dispensing.

"Uncontrolled hypertension is a major contributor to cardiovascular and kidney disease," said David K. Ahern, Ph.D., Abacus Senior Scientist. "By improving blood pressure control, this e-health enabled model of patient-centered care can significantly reduce the subsequent morbidity and mortality with uncontrolled hypertension."

The Abacus solution engages patients through the use of feedback and incentives for medication adherence and self-monitoring of blood pressure. Measures of both medication adherence and blood pressure readings are fed back to the clinical team to allow them to make optimal treatment decisions and provide additional support from a pharmacist or a nurse. The Abacus system uses evidence-based algorithms for blood pressure monitoring based on a patient's risk profile and provides individually tailored feedback from the Good Health Gateway^® (a propriety web-based patient self-management portal). The system enables blood pressure readings to be easily collected and shared using information recorded with a home blood pressure monitoring device that is synchronized with the Microsoft^® HealthVault™ data repository.

Abacus is collaborating with the Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island and the Warren Alpert Medical School at Brown University Center for Primary Care and Prevention and Project Director Charles Eaton, M.D., M.S. on the design and testing of this new e-blood pressure control system. The study, funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), is evaluating this new e-blood pressure control system within the Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model of care. The ongoing study will directly evaluate the use of this system and its effect on outcomes for patient activation, self-management activities, medication adherence, reduced clinical inertia and improved blood pressure management compared to a control group.