Thought about implementing a Self-Measured Blood Pressure (SMBP) monitoring program at your organization, but not sure where to start?

As part of the November 16, 2017 PHASE in-person convening, Dr. Michael Rakotz and Laken Barkowski, RN of the American Medical Association led a workshop for providers, care team members around this valuable tool for lowering blood pressure. They covered practical approaches to implementing a SMBP program, techniques for communicating SMBP data back to the clinical team, and common barriers to successfully implementing SMBP—and how to overcome them.

Workshop Objectives

  • Find out how to implement a Self-Measured Blood Pressure monitoring (SMBP) program
  • Get strategies to communicate SMBP data to other members of the care team
  • Hear obstacles others have encountered and learn how to overcome them

Workshop Resources

Presentation Slides
Target BP: Tools for Patient-Measured Blood Pressure

The AHA and AMA partnered to launch Target: BP in 2015 to improve blood pressure control and build a healthier nation. Target: BP supports physicians and care teams by offering access to the latest research, tools, and resources to reach and sustain blood pressure goal rates within the patients populations they serve.

Target BP Resources used in this workshop:

 

Workshop Speakers

Michael Rakotz, MD FAHA FAAFP
VP of Improving Health Outcomes, American Medical Association

Dr. Rakotz currently serves as Vice President of Improving Health Outcomes at the American Medical Association, where he oversees efforts to develop and implement national quality improvement initiatives aimed at improving blood pressure control and preventing type 2 diabetes. He is the AMA’s clinical lead of Target: BP, a nationwide, multi-year collaboration with the American Heart Association to reduce uncontrolled hypertension.

A practicing family physician for more than 20 years, Dr. Rakotz recently served as the Director of Population Health and Virtual Medicine at Northwestern Memorial Physicians Group in Chicago.  His office was one of 30 designated as a Million Hearts Hypertension Control Champion.

Dr. Rakotz also serves as Assistant Clinical Professor of Family and Community Medicine at the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University and as a Fellow for the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

 

Laken Barkowski, RN, BSN
Improvement Advisor for Improving Health Outcomes, American Medical Association

Laken Barkowski RN, BSN is an Improvement Advisor for Improving Health Outcomes (IHO) at the American Medical Association (AMA). In this role, she uses her clinical knowledge and background to assist in the creation, enhancement and implementation of quality improvement projects, mainly pertaining to hypertension control. Prior to joining the AMA, Laken worked in both the inpatient and outpatient healthcare settings. The primary care office she worked at most recently implemented M.A.P during its prototyping phase and she was so inspired by the impact the program could have on patients that she joined to AMA team to assist in spreading the program nationally. Laken received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Carroll University and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree in Healthcare Quality.

                          

                           

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