Working with your physician and care team
Tapping on the Share icon on the top right of the Trends screen lets you email your blood pressure history either as a screenshot of the graph screen or a text list of each time-stamped measurement with an attached CSV file. There are also options for social media sharing.
We should also note that iHealth is an early collaborator with Apple and Epic in terms of EHR integration through HealthKit. And as we learned from our conversations with iHealth executives, they are looking actively for options in the Android space as well to enable the same kind of integration.
Until that type of integration becomes the standard rather than the exception, iHealth really could do a better job in how it presents the data capture to clinicians. While the app itself is intuitive and could be readily scanned through during a visit, the current format in which patients would share this data with their care team is far more tedious to review than it need be.
Other features
Tapping the iHealth button on the bottom left takes us back to the home screen which is arranged in a tile format. Given iHealth has such a large suite of personal health devices, I’ve picked the few tiles that seem most relevant to self-management of high blood pressure.
Tapping on Profile, we see the option to add additional users or to enter a Guest mode. Given the app’s ability to launch directly to the testing screen when the monitor is in range, it would be nice to have a button there to change the user at that stage rather than having to navigate here via the main menu. We can also tap on the Reminders tile to add reminder to check blood pressure, take medications, and more.
One limitation we noted was a much smaller list of third-party app integrations than some of the other devices on the market. While HealthKit obviates the need for some of that in the iOS world, Android users are not yet so lucky. For patients who use other self-tracking devices or apps, this limitation may be a bit of a pain.
Outside of the app, there are two features we didn’t mention yet that are critical to this review. First, iHealth has an option for a large blood pressure cuff in addition to its standard 22cm – 42cm cuff. Given how strongly obesity tracks with hypertension, we can’t emphasize that point enough.
Second, iHealth is one of the few companies out there to seek independent third party validation of their device according to European Society of Hypertension standards. As the 2008 Scientific Statement from the American Heart Association and the American Society of Hypertension specifies, third-party testing according to international protocols is important to deciding which monitors can be relied upon for accurate measurements.
Conclusion
The iHealth Wireless Blood Pressure Monitor is a well designed and easy to use device that includes key features like compact packing of the device, a reminder functionality, a large cuff size option, and the availability of third-party validation process. The app could do a better job with how it shares data with the user’s physician, fine tuning their multi-user functionality, and third-party app integration.
