Blood pressure telemonitoring and remote counseling in uncontrolled hypertension

Telehealth is a useful adjunct in hypertension (HTN) management. Despite obvious short-term clinical benefit, long-term social impact and cost-effectiveness have not been fully investigated. Aim. Predictive modeling of long-term clinical and social outcomes and the cost-effectiveness analysis of blood pressure (BP) telemonitoring and remote counseling (BPTM) in patients with HTN. Materials and methods. A Markov cohort-based (1000 patients in each study arm) model was developed and adopted a 10-year time horizon with 12-month time cycles. Cost and outcome data collected from the three-month study of 240 patients (160 in BPTM group and 80 controls, 48 y.o.). All patients started at a non-complicated HTN "well" state with a certain possibility of disease progression in a number of health states over a discrete time period. BPTM was compared with usual care in terms of 10-year healthcare costs, quality adjusted life years (QALY) using a Ministry of Health of Russian Federation perspective. Results. In the long-term run when compared with usual care BPTM was more effective in terms mortality (67 versus 91 patients lost and 9.6 versus 9.71 life years gained) and costs (cost of illness 102 508 000 RUR versus 145 237 700 RUR). Taking quality of life measures into account, the effect of BPTM was also more pronounced (8.31 versus 7.82 QALYs gained). The resultant incremental cost-utility ratio for BPTM was 275 178.98 RUR/1 QALY gained/1 patient (134 837.70 RUR/0.49 QALY/1 patient). Conclusion. According to the results of predictive modeling, implementation of BPTM into clinical practice is likely lead to reduced cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in a cost-effective way.