AAN 2026 | Digital health interventions for blood pressure control in stroke: considerations for implementation
Shervin Badihian, MD, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, OH, shares considerations for the implementation of digital health interventions for blood pressure control in stroke survivors. Dr Badihian notes that integrating these tools into current practice models, including virtual visits and closed-loop communication, can provide better data on blood pressure control and identify areas for intervention. This interview took place at the 78th American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL.
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Transcript
I know these tools have gotten a lot of attention more recently, also, and also in the media, and there is a lot of potential to use this in clinical practice. I don’t think we are still there, but we will get there. I think it’s useful to use the data that we already can get from these devices, and it is not something that we ask patients to do. Many of the patients own devices like that or own blood pressure cuffs at home or own some sort of like a smartwatch or something that they can use as reminders or other tools...
I know these tools have gotten a lot of attention more recently, also, and also in the media, and there is a lot of potential to use this in clinical practice. I don’t think we are still there, but we will get there. I think it’s useful to use the data that we already can get from these devices, and it is not something that we ask patients to do. Many of the patients own devices like that or own blood pressure cuffs at home or own some sort of like a smartwatch or something that they can use as reminders or other tools. The conclusion that I got after reviewing all of this was that these tools probably work the best when they are integrated into our current model of practice. Right now, we have these patients either come back to the clinic every six months or so or see them in person or virtually. And if we can integrate some sort of digital health intervention into the current models of practice, we probably have yet better data on how the blood pressure control is going on and what are the areas that we should intervene on before the patient experiences any sort of second event or a recurrent stroke. An ideal model which was actually trialed in one or two of these studies was some sort of integration of the virtual visits plus some blood pressure monitoring at home and a closed-loop communication where someone reviews the data that they receive and they make changes based on the data. They increase the medications, decrease the medications, or just provide some sort of reinforcement that you are doing a great job as you are taking, plus reminders for the medications and other stuff. So attacking the problem from multiple aspects to address the non-adherence, to address the missed, uncontrolled or out-of-range blood pressure measurements that we may not get out of just a clinic encounter. And also to integrate it with the direct contact with the clinician, clinical team. That was the most impressive data that we got, the most meaningful data that we got. And probably that would be what we will see in practice also.
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