A new blood pressure app has been introduced at Newham Hospital to help reduce the number of hospital visits for pregnant women.
The app, BPm-Health (Blood Pressure management system-Health), by Sensyne Health, has been introduced for women who are at high risk of high blood pressure. It means they can now accurately measure and record their blood pressure at home.
The women are provided with blood pressure pumps to measure their own blood pressure and log their reading on the app. The readings are then monitored by midwives in the hospital for any changes or problems. By offering this service it reduces the number of trips to hospital and saves hospital resources.
Tosin Ikobayo, digital midwife at Newham Hospital, said: “Occasionally, pregnant patients may need to wait for some time when coming into the hospital to have their blood pressure checked, because midwives are busy looking after other patients.”
“This new app resolves this issue by allowing our expectant mothers to save time on travelling into the hospital and instead, measure and record their blood pressure from their own home. The added benefit of the app reducing the workload of our busy maternity unit is also a big plus!”
Jessica Botten, a patient at Newham Hospital who is 35 weeks pregnant, said: “The app is really straight forward and easy to use. Being able to record my blood pressure at home is so much easier than coming into the hospital. I always feel a little bit anxious and nervous waiting for my appointment in the hospital so measuring my blood pressure in the peace and quiet of my own home is incredibly helpful.”
Once the patient inputs their blood pressure reading into the app, the details are automatically uploaded into the Bpm-Health portal which is accessible to dedicated healthcare professionals.
The app also supports expectant mothers to record the protein levels in their urine (urinalysis), using urine strips provided, and this data is made available to healthcare teams.
The app is free to use and is available is in English, Arabic, Somali, French, Spanish, Italian and Romanian.
