Bad news sometimes coincides with good news, with good news winning the day. The bad news came courtesy of the CDC which reported that more than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths in the US were preventable[i]. Their data also shows that over 250,000 women experience difficulties during their pregnancies every year. Unfortunately, trends in severe maternal morbidity have worsened over the past decades[ii] and hypertension is a leading contributor[iii],[iv].
The good news is that sensors and analytical systems are now available that can inexpensively profile, monitor, and assist physicians in helping their patients control and manage their blood pressure. For example, Biobeat’s ABPM (Ambulatory Blood Pressure Monitoring) solution was engineered around the company’s small cuffless blood pressure sensor, integrated artificial intelligence, and robust analytics. The sensor is comfortably attached to the patient's upper chest to measure and log blood pressure readings every fifteen minutes over twenty-four hours. The resulting profile, which I will detail in my next posts, arms physicians with unprecedented actionable insights into their patient's blood pressure, mean arterial pressure, systemic vascular resistance, and cardiac output.
Viewed from informed decision-making perspectives, Biobeat's technologies are setting new standards of individualized affordable patient care. I reached out to clinicians for their insights on applying these innovative solutions to help protect the health of new and expecting mothers. Our team is similarly engaging community organizations to discuss how ABPM and remote patient monitoring can be integrated to improve care in underserved communities. I will share their feedback and co-author posts with experts in the months ahead. Stay tuned!
References
[i] Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Four in 5 pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S. are preventable, https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/p0919-pregnancy-related-deaths.html, accessed October 19, 2022. [ii] CDC, Trends in Severe Maternal Morbidity, https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/severematernalmorbidity.html#anchor_trends, accessed October 19, 2022. [iii] Mayo Clinic, High blood pressure and pregnancy: Know the facts, https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/pregnancy-week-by-week/in-depth/pregnancy/art-20046098, accessed October 19, 2022. [iv] Andrea G. Kattah, MD, Vesna D. Garovic, MD, Management of Hypertension in Pregnancy, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3925675/, accessed October 19, 2022.
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