A Pilot Study of Hypertension Management Using Remote Patient Monitoring

Investigators at Northwestern University will partner with Omron Healthcare Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Omron") to conduct a pragmatic pilot test of a remote patient monitoring system (RPM) for blood pressure measurement for Medicare patients with hypertension. The primary objective is to better understand how patients' remote monitoring of blood pressure and the direct transmission of this data to a healthcare system's EHR can be used by the patient and the care team to support optimal hypertension care. The procedures that will be evaluated are routine healthcare services that are currently reimbursable by Medicare. However, the optimal ways to: integrate these tools into primary care practice, promote clinician and patient uptake, and put this information to use in the clinical environment to best control hypertension are not fully understood. This pilot study which we will conduct in two Northwestern Medical Group (NMG) primary care practices will: evaluate the integration of Omron's remote monitoring system into Northwestern Medicine's electronic health record (so that clinical data can flow directly from the patient's monitor to the EHR), evaluate the use of billing work flows for covered Medicare services, build and deploy clinical decision support to aid with patient identification and ordering of the remote patient monitoring system, and evaluate the uptake and clinical effects of this system in the pilot practices compared to matched patients selected from non-pilot control practices. The remote patient monitoring (RPM) system will be provided by Omron Healthcare to eligible patients at no charge. This will include a Bluetooth enabled home blood pressure monitor, a simplified smart phone connected to the Verizon network and, if requested, a Bluetooth enabled scale. Patients who are agreeable to using this RPM system will have this service ordered by their clinician will have this equipment mailed to their homes. Payments for reimbursable remote monitoring services will be billed by Northwestern Medicine to Medicare and supplemental insurance coverage in the fashion that is permitted under Medicare rules. The investigators will conduct a pragmatic non-blinded, non-randomized pilot study with contemporaneous controls among NMG outpatient clinics that provide adult primary care. We will make comparisons of data obtained through the course of routine care delivery from pilot and non-pilot practices.