The American Heart Association has recently started to recommend home blood pressure monitors for use by patients with hypertension (high blood pressure), to help keep accurate daily readings. Most patients only have these readings taken during routine office visits or a trip to the local pharmacy, which typically isn’t all that often.

My mother has high blood pressure, for which she takes medication. She only gets her blood pressure taken during visits to her doctor, which happens every few months at best. I had asked her about a year ago if she was interested in getting a home blood pressure monitor as I’d seen loads of them advertised. Her reply shocked me. “No, my doctor said not to bother, she said those home units aren’t that reliable.”

So when I saw the latest news release from the American Heart Association I called her up immediately.

“See, I told you they were good,” I said. These new home devices offer many benefits to people trying to get a handle on high blood pressure.

1. First, they can be used daily, which is the best way to accurately see how medication, exercise and other health measures are working to help manage the condition.
2. Second, they don’t cost that much (about $80 retail).
3. And third, they are easy to use.

But the marketer in me sees the value of bringing more medical devices into the home environment. By designing these products simply, everyday people can, with the help of their doctors, take better care of themselves. Think about people who are managing cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and other chronic conditions; these products give consumers more control through information.

Even Intel is getting in the game. Rather than targeting consumers Intel will focus on selling to health systems, disease management companies and hospitals. Maybe down the road they’ll come up with a device sold directly to consumers, since half the battle (brand awareness) is won.

And if I can’t convince my mom to go with a home monitor, maybe she should start drinking HeartBeet, a beet-root juice, that reportedly seems to have some positive effects on lowering blood pressure.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 8th, 2008 at 6:27 pm and is filed under Home Healthcare, Medical Devices. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.