Project Summary
This research project is in progress. PCORI will post the research findings on this page within 90 days after the results are final.
What is the research about?
Uncontrolled high blood pressure, or BP, causes more than 500,000 deaths each year in the United States. Tracking BP at home can help lower BP and improve patients’ health. With home tracking, patients take their BP using an electronic device that sends their BP values to their care team. The care team can then adjust BP treatment between clinic visits. But questions remain about how much support patients need to successfully track BP at home.
In this study, the research team is comparing two ways to support patients with home BP tracking:
- Enhanced usual care, or EUC. Patients use a home BP tracker. They also receive information from their doctor on diet, exercise, and how to control their BP.
- Telemonitoring with team-based care, or TTC. Patients use a home BP tracker and work with a care team. Care teams include clinicians, such as a doctor, nurse practitioner, or physician assistant, and a clinical pharmacist. Care teams provide support over the phone or via telehealth twice per month in the first 2 months and then monthly for 10 months. Care teams teach patients to control BP and help adjust medicines as needed. Care teams also help patients to problem-solve and refer them to support services. Services may include help to access transportation, reduce medicine costs, or improve nutrition and exercise.
Who can this research help?
Results may help clinic administrators and clinicians when considering ways to help patients manage high BP.
What is the research team doing?
The research team is recruiting 780 adults with uncontrolled BP from 14 primary care practices in North Carolina. The team is assigning patients by chance to receive EUC or TTC.
The research team is checking patients’ BP at the start of the study and again 6 and 12 months later. The team is also looking to see if effects of being in the EUC or TTC group vary by patient traits such as age, sex, or race.
Patients with high BP and clinicians are helping to plan and conduct this study.
Research methods at a glance
| Design Element | Description |
|---|---|
| Design | Randomized controlled trial |
| Population | 780 adults ages 18 and older with a history of high BP from 1 of 14 primary care clinics across North Carolina |
| Interventions/ Comparators |
|
| Outcomes |
Primary: change in systolic blood pressure at 6 months Secondary: change in systolic blood pressure at 12 months, improved systolic blood pressure control |
| Timeframe | 6-month follow-up for primary outcome |