AMA launches data model for blood pressure monitoring devices

Three health technology vendors have adopted the American Medical Association’s Integrated Health Model Initiative (IHMI) to improve the capture of clinically valid blood pressure data.

The Self-Measured Blood Pressure Data Model is the first data model created under IHMI, an AMA-led effort to improve, organize and share health information among healthcare stakeholders.

According to AMA, IHMI’s data model standardizes clinically relevant information for advanced blood pressure monitoring devices, helping to define what data to collect, select how to represent the collected data, as well as determine how to encode the data for easy transmission, exchange and retrieval.

Also See: AMA launches platform for organizing, exchanging health information

“The ability to harness patient-generated health data from a multitude of sources has come of age, and will empower patients and physicians to find and leverage meaningful data to improve health,” says IHMI Chief Medical Information Officer Tom Giannulli, MD.

“With the increase in healthcare consumerism, there is a critical need to enable data models that manage the collection and exchange of health data so patients and clinicians can make sense of it and rely on its clinical validity,” adds Giannulli.

After the successful completion of a clinical validation process, the Self-Measured Blood Pressure Data Model moved into product integration with higi, a consumer health vendor with more than 10,000 smart health stations located across the United States supporting 54 million unique users.

“higi is proud to collaborate with IHMI on this important endeavor which enables healthcare providers the ability to expand their current network and tap the power of the higi to reach, know, engage with and manage their patients and consumers in real time,” says Khan Siddiqui, MD, higi’s chief medical officer and chief technology officer. “With this real-time remote patient data now accessible to providers, they are able to connect patients to the right care they need, providing next health actions based on the reliable higi station blood pressure and biometric information to add real-time intelligence to patient treatment plans.”

HealthSteps, a mobile health company, is also integrating content from the Self-Measured Blood Pressure Data Model into its mHealth platform.

“The development of a common data structure with the AMA's IHMI data models is a giant leap forward for healthcare,” says Benjamin King, CEO of HealthSteps. “We are excited to work with the AMA Integrated Health Model Initiative and its community of collaborators to advance this first release and further the deployment of this technology to improve care for millions of patients.”

In addition, Cloud DX—a Canadian digital health vendor—has finalized a product integration agreement.

“Cloud DX is excited to work with the AMA on the Integrated Health Model Initiative,” says Anthony Kaul, Cloud DX’s co-founder and chief operations officer. “Cloud DX has always been a proponent of capturing meta-data about the conditions under which patient-generated vital signs are gathered.”

“The IHMI data model for gathering self-measured blood pressure will assist in establishing a baseline of trust in the BP readings of remotely monitored patients,” adds Kaul. “As digital medicine builds momentum and the care continuum continues to expand past the four walls of the clinic, it will be imperative that the precision of data gathered outside the clinic is a known entity as an input to diagnostic and prescriptive decisions by the clinician.”

IHMI, which is open to all healthcare and technology organizations, has a number of early participants, including the American Heart Association, American Medical Informatics Association, Cerner, IBM and Intermountain Healthcare.