Adding Pharmacist-Led Home Blood Pressure Telemonitoring to Usual Care for Blood Pressure Control: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Am J Cardiol. 2023 Sep 15:203:161-168. doi: 10.1016/j.amjcard.2023.06.109. Epub 2023 Jul 25.

Abstract

Health systems have been quickly adopting telemedicine throughout the United States, especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there are limited data on whether adding pharmacist-led home blood pressure (BP) telemonitoring to office-based usual care improves BP. We searched PubMed/MEDLINE and Embase for randomized controlled trials from January 2000 until April 2022, comparing studies on pharmacist-led home BP telemonitoring with usual care. Six randomized controlled trials, including 1,550 participants, satisfied the inclusion criteria. There were 774 participants in the pharmacist-led telemonitoring group and 776 in the usual care group. The addition of pharmacist-led telemonitoring to usual care was associated with a significant decrease in systolic BP (mean difference -8.09, 95% confidence interval -11.15 to -5.04, p <0.001, I2 = 72%) and diastolic BP (mean difference -4.19, 95% confidence interval -5.58 to -2.81, p <0.001, I2 = 42%) compared with usual care. In conclusion, this meta-analysis showed that adding pharmacist-led home BP telemonitoring to usual care achieves better BP control than usual care alone.

Publication types

  • Meta-Analysis
  • Systematic Review

MeSH terms

  • Blood Pressure
  • Blood Pressure Monitoring, Ambulatory
  • COVID-19* / epidemiology
  • Humans
  • Hypertension* / drug therapy
  • Pandemics
  • Pharmacists
  • Telemedicine*
  • United States