Design of a Care Pathway for Preventive Blood Pressure Monitoring: Qualitative Study

BACKGROUND: Electronic health (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 to their implementation is the lack of integration into organizations. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to design a Care Pathway for monitoring the blood pressure of at-risk patients, in order to increase eHealth implementation in secondary preventive care. METHODS: A qualitative design study was used in this research. Data were collected by conducting visual mapping sessions including semistructured interviews with hypertension patients and doctors. The data were transcribed and coded and thereafter mapped into a Care Pathway. RESULTS: Four themes emerged from the results: (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 patients and health professionals need to be designed. These in-depth insights combined with the visualization of the current blood pressure process resulted in our Care Pathway design for monitoring the blood pressure of at-risk patients as secondary preventive care. CONCLUSIONS: The Care Pathway guides the implementation of eHealth devices for blood pressure self-measurement. 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.