NHS adopts app allowing pregnant women monitor their blood pressure from home

Sensyne Health, the Oxford-based UK Clinical AI technology company, has launched BPm-Health to help pregnant women monitor blood pressure remotely in response to the UK government guidelines for all pregnant women to follow stringent social distancing and minimise face-to-face contact. 

BPm-Health will be offered free to the NHS for one year to support hospital maternity services during the coronavirus pandemic. The formal launch of the product comes after the successful completion of recruitment of a 3000 participant multicentre trial (BuMP) involving 15 NHS Trusts, led by the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, University of Oxford. The BuMP app was transferred to Sensyne Health earlier this year and re-engineered under the company's Quality Management System.

BPm-Health is one of three apps listed by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (RCOG) in its recent guidance 'Self-monitoring of blood pressure in pregnancy'.

The announcement follows the uptake by the NHS of Sensyne Health's offer, announced on 27 March 2020, to provide GDm-Health, a remote monitoring system for the management of diabetes in pregnancy, free to the NHS for one year.

The COVID-19 pandemic is increasing the need for healthcare professionals to advocate blood pressure self-monitoring to reduce the need for face-to-face consultations for pregnant women, while maintaining care for the mother and her baby.

BPm-Health aims to help expectant mothers to self-monitor their blood pressure, sending results to their healthcare team remotely rather than at face-to-face clinic appointments. Women are sent alerts when it is time to take a reading, and can then record data on the patient app. The app displays RCOG advice on what women should do dependent on the results submitted.

Lord (Paul) Drayson PhD, CEO of Sensyne Health, said: "This is now the launch of a second Sensyne product in the field of women's health and our fourth in the area of remote patient monitoring."

Dr Lucy Mackillop , Chief Medical Officer of Sensyne Health plc and consultant obstetric physician at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer, Nuffield Department of Women's and Reproductive Health, University of Oxford, said: "As a practicing consultant obstetric physician, I'm acutely aware that the pandemic is a cause of worry for expectant mothers as access to antenatal and postnatal services has been modified and some face-to-face appointments have been postponed. 

"I welcome the launch of BPm-Health which will help NHS maternity services support women to observe UK government guidelines on social distancing by remote monitoring of their blood pressure, while maintaining the delivery of high-quality care. 

"This technology helps the NHS remotely manage pregnant women, maintain existing planned clinic appointments and provide the right care during the COVID-19 pandemic, and long after it.  BPm-Health is an excellent accompaniment to the work we have already done with GDm-Health, an award-winning app helping mothers-to-be manage diabetes in pregnancy at home."  

BPm-Health is a collaboration between University of Oxford's Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Sensyne Health led by Dr Lucy Mackillop, a consultant Obstetric Physician at Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Honorary Senior Clinical Lecturer in women's and reproductive health at the University of Oxford, and Chief Medical Officer at Sensyne Health.