Home blood pressure teletransmission for better diagnosis and treatment.

The rate of control of high blood pressure is disappointing, and noncompliance is one factor that contributes to this. The reasons for poor compliance are complex and include factors related to the patient, the healthcare provider, and the medical system. In general, the lack of regular communication between the patient and the physician, as occurs in the traditional model of clinic-based care, predicts a low rate of blood pressure control. In addition, clinic-based blood pressure rates are notoriously unreliable. A solution to this dilemma is teletransmission of self- measured blood pressure readings, which offers the dual advantages of more reliable measurements, and the establishment of regular telephone communication between the patient and the healthcare provider. Preliminary evidence with this type of system suggests that blood pressure control can be improved substantially.