: It seems that computers have a favourable effect on the uptake and follow up of patients in hypertension management .
STUDY OBJECTIVE : To assess the effect of computers and computer-based clinical decision support systems on the  management of hypertension .
Improving Hypertension Control: Impact of Computer Feedback and Physician Education
Two interventions design ed to help physicians manage hypertensive patients were evaluated in a controlled trial : 1 ) computer-generated feedback to facilitate identification of poorly controlled patients ; and 2 ) a physician education program on clinical management strategies , emphasizing patient compliance . Four physician practice teams received either computer feedback , the education program , both , or neither . Feedback team physicians received seven monthly listings of the latest visits and blood pressures of their hypertensive patients . The self-administered learning program included written clinical simulations and associated didactic material .  Experimental and control physicians were similar in baseline knowledge , patient mix and level of training . All feedback team physicians requested appointments for listed patients , and their patients made twice as many visits as control patients during the intervention period ( p < 0.05 ) . Education team physicians showed significant gains on a content-specific post-intervention test : mean score 84 per cent compared with 74 per cent for the control group ( p < 0.005 ) . All patient groups showed improvement in blood pressure over the study period . However , no differences between intervention teams could be detected ( p > 0.20 ) . The probability of missing a 10 mm interteam difference in outcome diastolic pressure was 1 per cent ( power of 0.99 ) . Strategies for further improvement in outpatient hypertension management may need to come from outside the traditional medical model
: It seems that computers have a favourable effect on the uptake and follow up of patients in hypertension management .
STUDY OBJECTIVE : To assess the effect of computers and computer-based clinical decision support systems on the  management of hypertension .