Recent study revealed that automated telephone call reminders can help people in controlling their blood pressure. Research team led by Dr. Pavel Hamet of the University of Montreal designed a computer-based management program. The electronic system called people and ask them for their most recent home-recorded blood pressure measurement. This data was then combined with information on medication refills. The monthly reports were e-mailed to doctors, pharmacists and nurses.

In the trails, 223 patients with hypertension were randomly assigned to receive computerized calls. 111 study subjects in the reminder group received phone calls from once a day to several times a week on the basis of a pre-determined schedule. Study subjects on the reminder group got calls from nurses if they were not taking medicine properly.

Dr. Pavel Hamet, a professor of medicine, physiology and nutrition at the University of Montreal said after about a year, 46 percent of men and women who got such calls had brought their blood pressure down to optimum levels, compared to about 29 percent of people who didn't receive calls.

Hamel's team is designing another study to analyze whether the automated system would be cost-effective or not.