JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

eHealth services could provide a solution for monitoring the blood pressure of at-risk patients while also decreasing expensive doctor visits. However, a major barrier that posed their implementation is the lack of integration into organisations.

Objective:

To design a Care Pathway for monitoring blood pressure of at-risk patients, in order to increase the implementation of eHealth in secondary preventive care.

Methods:

A qualitative design study was performed for this research. Data was collected by conducting visual mapping sessions including semi-structured interviews with hypertension patients and doctors. The data was transcribed and coded and thereafter mapped into a Care Pathway.

Results:

Common agreement on four themes: (1) the current approach to blood pressure measuring has disadvantages; (2) risk and lifestyle factors of blood pressure measuring need to be considered; (3) there are certain influences of the at-home context on measuring blood pressure; and (4) new touchpoints between actors need to be designed. These the in-depth insights combined with the visualisation of the current blood pressure process resulted in the Care Pathway design for monitoring the blood pressure of at-risk patients as secondary preventive care.

Conclusions:

The Care Pathway guides the implementation of the SBPM eHealth devices. It showcases the pathway of at-risk patients and increases their involvement in managing their blood pressure. It serves as a basis for a new service using eHealth.