Future blood pressure monitoring outside health care settings

Measurement of blood pressure to guide hypertension management is increasingly performed outside of health care settings. Current methods include home blood pressure and ambulatory monitoring, but there is an array of next generation wearable cuffless monitoring devices entering the market that will disrupt the way blood pressure is conventionally measured and have major implications for hypertension management. Our team has multiple PhD opportunities available that aim to address the address accuracy, quality and acceptability of blood pressure measurement methods used outside health care settings. 

High blood pressure (BP) is the leading cause of cardiovascular disease (CVD)-related morbidity and mortality worldwide, yet it is a modifiable risk factor and when high BP is lowered there is a reduction in CVD events. Only 32% of Australians diagnosed with high BP control it well, other countries do much better; for example, in Canada approximately 70% of those diagnosed with hypertension attain well-controlled BP. Poor BP control remains a major impediment to better improved health outcomes for people with high BP.

Australian and international guidelines recommend BP measurement outside health care settings to confirm diagnosis of high BP and for longer term monitoring. However, only 20% of home BP devices available for consumer purchase in Australia have been clinically validated for accuracy, potentially a major problem for efficacy of home BP monitoring. A potential replacement for traditional cuff devices – wearable, cuffless BP monitors, are also entering the market. Cuffless monitors use multiple different methods to generate BP values, and much more research on the utility and validity of these devices is urgently needed.

The proposed research projects will generate new knowledge current and future blood pressure monitoring used outside health care settings. Ultimately the projects will inform larger scale studies and collaborations with health care services and regulatory bodies to inform use of future BP measurement technologies and improve management of cardiovascular disease risk.