Tele health for Emergency-Community Continuity of Care Connectivity via Home Telemonitoring Blood Pressure (TEC4HOME-BP)-a Randomized Controlled Trial

Around one in four Canadians have high blood pressure (BP), also known as hypertension. High BP is a major risk factor stroke, heart attack, and kidney disease. Lowering BP levels by a small amount, can reduce risk of heart disease and stroke. Hypertension control rates in Canada are the lowest that they have been in a decade. Patients with hypertension frequently need to visit the emergency department (ED) due to high BP. Hypertension is one of the chronic diseases that can be managed effectively with digital health technology. We do not know the best way to manage BP after people are discharged from the ED. Many doctors worry that their BP may go too high or low if we treat or do not treat their BP. We do not know if digital health technologies can be used to safely monitor these people as they transition from the hospital to home and help control their BP. We will test to see if home blood pressure telemonitoring (HBPT) plus pharmacist case management will result in better BP control for participants who are discharged from the ED with uncontrolled high BP compared to standard care. We hope to create a toolkit on how to implement a HBPT program for people discharged from the ED with high BP and inform guidelines on high BP.