Pregnancy-Related Hypertension: Adherence to a New Type of Monitoring

Overview

A large segment of our patient population is diagnosed with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy, including gestational hypertension and pre-eclampsia. New guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommend postpartum monitoring of blood pressures via blood pressure checks on day 3 postpartum and between days 7-10 postpartum. Our purpose is to compare the effectiveness of using a Bluetooth-enabled home blood pressure monitoring platform to the standard postpartum office-based blood pressure monitoring in performing the recommended postpartum follow-up for patients with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy.

While inpatient during the postpartum period, patients will be identified who were diagnosed with hypertensive disorders of pregnancy antepartum, intrapartum, or postpartum. These patients will be recruited prior to discharge home. This will be a randomized control trial, non-blinded. The study group will receive a mobile app for postpartum education and an integrated Wi-Fi connected blood pressure cuff for at-home monitoring for 16 days postpartum. The home BP monitoring will occur twice a day and study team will check the BPs twice a day and intervene by phone or text if necessary. The control group will be scheduled for blood pressure checks at the clinic between days 7-10. These groups will be compared with regard to adherence to guidelines from the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists for blood pressure monitoring, antihypertensive initiation after discharge, unscheduled visits, readmission, and attendance of postpartum visit.

Conditions