At-Home RPM Program for Hypertension Cuts “Uncontrolled” Rate in Half

WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, January 20, 2023 — A HRSA-funded in-home Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM) program for a population of 524 FQHC patients with AHA Stage II Hypertension resulted in half of those becoming “controlled” within 10 weeks, with an average drop in systolic BP of 16 mmHG.

Hypertension affects over 100 million Americans. Of those, approximately half are not controlled. The Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) provided grants to Federally Qualified Health Clinics (FQHC) to establish in-home RPM solutions to help patients manage hypertension to reduce the likelihood of strokes, heart attacks, and other cardio-vascular events.

FQHCs in Maine, California, Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana received HRSA grants and engaged BlueStar Telehealth to provide the hardware, software, logistics, and nurse monitoring to implement the RPM program for their patients. BlueStar enrolled patients, shipped equipment, and monitored the patient populations over a period of 18 weeks. Of approximately 2000 patients in the program, 524 had “uncontrolled” hypertension, as defined by the CDC.

In the uncontrolled population being managed in the program, the mean Systolic BP was lowered from 153 to 137 mmHg within 10 weeks. The mean Diastolic BP dropped from 96 to 87 mmHg. At enrollment in the program, 100% of the 524 patients were classified as having AHA Stage II (uncontrolled) Hypertension. Within 10 weeks, only 58% of those in the program remained classified as uncontrolled. The graphs below show the results over 10 weeks.

Multiple studies* show that reduction in systolic BP of 15 mmHG reduction in BP reduces the risk of:

• Major cardio-vascular disease events by 30%
• Coronary heart disease by 26%
• Stroke by 40%
• Heart failure by 42%
• All-cause mortality by 20%”

*Source: Ettehad D, Emdin CA, Kiran A, Anderson SG, Callender T, Emberson J, Chalmers J, Rodgers A, Rahimi K. Blood pressure lowering for prevention of cardiovascular disease and death: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet. 2016 Mar 5;387(10022):957-967. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(15)01225-8. Epub 2015 Dec 24. PMID: 26724178. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26724178

About BlueStar TeleHealth
BlueStar Telehealth is a veteran-owned business providing in-home population health solutions to Physicians Practices, FQHCs, Hospitals, and Payers, including RPM, Chronic Care Management (CCM), Transitional Care Management, and Maternal Health Solutions. Serving thousands of patients across the country, BlueStar has been engaged by several FQHCs to provide full-service RPM and CCM solutions under the HRSA grants.

Michael Rolli, MD
BlueStar TeleHealth
+1 800-441-0730
support@bluestartelehealth.com
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