Our pilot study indicates that use of POST system could
be a valid aid in hypertension and cardiovascular risk
management, by allowing the achievement of a significant
improvement in hypertension control, both when considering
office and home BP values. This is likely to be due to its
ability to improve patients’ compliance to both lifestyle and
drug prescriptions, and at the same time to support physicians
through identification of tailored cardiovascular risk factors
targets for every patient and optimization of drug treatment to
achieve tight BP control.
However, this pilot should be interpreted in the context of
its limits. First of all, this study could not be blinded due to
the nature of the tested POST system. Second, patients were
assigned to two arms without a standard randomization
procedure but alternately following the order of visiting their
doctors. Third, Although Patients assigned into POST group
regularly received alarm reminder for medication, patients’
compliance has not been specifically measured, although
information on the prescribed antihypertensive treatment at
baseline and during follow-up is available on the study CRF,
including the drug type, dosage, and change during
follow-up. Also acceptance of the system by patients would
need to be specifically assessed in future larger studies.
Further longitudinal, randomized, larger scale studies are thus
needed to confirm our pilot findings on the effects of POST
on hypertension control and cardiovascular risk reduction.