Montage x Cadence Heart Health Month interview: The benefits of using Cadence for hypertension patients
In a new interview, patient Tori Buckles discussed the benefits that she and her husband have experienced from using Cadence’s remote monitoring services and also opened up about the need for fellow Americans to be proactive in monitoring and controlling their blood pressure.
The interview was conducted as part of an interview series launched by Cadence in connection to American Heart Health Month, which is this February and an important time when Americans are encouraged to focus on their cardiovascular health.
Buckles, who lives in Big Sur, California, is a patient of Montage Health, which announced a partnership with Cadence in September 2023 to bring Montage Health Connected Care to patients. Cadence is an at-home patient monitoring service that provides preventative care to patients with chronic conditions.
Buckles, who has hypertension, was referred to Cadence by her primary care physician after she was hospitalized following a syncopal episode. She and her husband live over an hour from the nearest medical facility, so her primary care physician suggested that she enroll in Cadence in order to help monitor her blood pressure on an ongoing basis in between clinic visits.
Buckles had previously been using a manual blood pressure cuff, but said Cadence has proven much easier to use. “I was taking my blood pressure with a manual blood pressure cuff myself prior, but this way I'm doing it every day,” Buckles said. “And the fact that it's also being monitored by someone other than myself is comforting.”
Once enrolled in Cadence, patients are equipped with a set of smart devices, such as a blood pressure cuff, weight scale, or blood glucometer, that transmit their vital readings automatically to the Cadence care team and to their own health care provider.
The Cadence care team monitors the readings and reaches out if there is anything concerning, in consultation with the patient’s provider. The data shows that Cadence’s technology results in better clinical outcomes for patients, along with a lower cost of care.
Buckles said the service has proven easy to use and has helped her to keep track of her readings on a daily basis. “I do it every morning and it gives me a reading and then I get a text message that shows my reading and a weekly summary of the readings from the week before,” she shared. “I am able to keep track and see any trends if it's going up or are there any issues and know that I need to look out for something or increase medication, so that has helped a great deal.”
In addition to benefiting patients, Cadence’s service has proven to be equally beneficial for providers, by allowing them to offer better clinical care to their patients while also saving them valuable time. Montage Medical Group Internal Medicine Dr. Jill Tiongco described some of the benefits that she has experienced by using Cadence with her patients.
“We get to goals sooner, and we have an extended care team that provides our patients with a better care experience,” Tiongco said. “It is amazing how data for the patient and for me has changed both behavior and treatment.”
Working hand-in-hand with Dr. Tiongco and other providers at Montage Medical Group, the Cadence care team is able to titrate medications based on their vital signs and check in with patients as needed. Tiongco discusses how this has proven beneficial for her chronic disease patients who are at different stages of their treatment journey.
“For some, our goal is not to over treat or under treat with medications and thus, the daily checks and titration works perfectly to get to these goals sooner rather than later, because we get to see good information sooner,” she shared.
“For others, it is awareness and adherence to get them to reach treatment goals. With daily readings, my patients get to understand first hand what their blood pressures are when they skip a medication for a day or two. Some have also lost weight after understanding the correlation between dietary habits and glucose levels.”
As far as the additional benefits that she has experienced as a clinician, Tiongco shared that “getting data is easier,” and additionally, with Cadence, “medication management is easier because some of my patients are more aware of their medications and are able to better engage whenI do medication reconciliation with them.”
Buckles is a perfect example of a patient who has benefitted from the Cadence service as a tool to keep better track of her blood pressure and her health. “I would recommend the Cadence service, to anyone who needs to monitor their blood pressure because it's very easy to use, and it’s a much better way to keep track of what's going on with your health,”said Buckles.
In fact, the service has proven to be so useful that Buckles said she also recommended it to her husband, who is also now a Cadence patient.
“My husband is now on the Cadence program. In the past, I was taking his blood pressure and he sometimes would kind of brush it off when I told him it was too low or too high,” she said. “He is now much more aware of his health and his blood pressure and if it goes up, he tries to think about what he's doing or hasn't done and adjusts accordingly.”
“He's a perfect example of somebody who doesn't think they may need it, but once they do it, it really helps.”
If you are interested in learning more about Cadence and the benefits for patients, read more here. If you are a clinician considering using Cadence with your patients, read more about the benefits here. Listen to the Tori's full story below.
