Adherence-HTN

Adherence to hypertension treatment and blood pressure self-monitoring using embedded smartphone camera and advanced image processing

CINTESIS, in collaboration with MEDIDA, proposed Inspirers-HTN, a multiplatform and multi-language mobile application to support the monitoring of hypertension. The application will allow the registration of pharmacological treatment and the customization of alerts for the patient to take the medication and measure blood pressure (BP). Inspirers-HTN will be able to identify the number of pills in a blister and capture the BP values on the screen of the measuring devices, using the smartphone’s camera, quantifying adherence to therapy, and generating automatic BP reports. It will also include educational material on BP measurement and the importance of adherence to therapy.

Although arterial hypertension is a very prevalent disease and several pharmacological classes are available, with good efficacy and tolerability, most patients continue to have the disease uncontrolled. Low adherence to therapy is one of the most important reasons. This is difficult to identify and even more difficult to overcome. Patients are asked to measure blood pressure (BP) regularly at home, but the quality of measurements and records is often poor.

The project aims to develop and evaluate Inspirers-HTN, a mobile application to support the management of hypertension, including the measurement of adherence to therapy and self-measurement of BP values. The problem of adherence to therapy in hypertension will be addressed in an innovative way: patients will be invited to photograph the blisters with the smartphone’s camera and the application will recognize the empty cavities thanks to image processing techniques. Likewise, photographs of the screens of the BP measurement devices will be used to automatically capture the values. It will be possible to customize alerts for both activities; educational material on BP measurement and the importance of adherence will be included. It will be the first widely available method of measuring adherence to therapy. In addition, it will involve patients in self-measurement of BP, which is known to better predict the occurrence of cardiovascular events than in-office measurements. Globally, Inspirers-HTN will contribute to the empowerment of patients, to their involvement in disease management, promoting the doctor-patient (and nurse-patient) relationship, through easier information exchange and shared decision making.

EIT Health InnoStars

37500 €

Non-available

2020-RIS-1001-8286-ADHERENCE

Luís Nogueira-Silva, Rute Borges Almeida, Pedro Marques, Cristina Jácome, Ana Ferreira, João Almeida Fonseca