Blood Pressure Control

Based on King's Theory of Goal Success, this project is designed to develop a mobile application called TansiyoRitim for individuals over the age of 18 diagnosed with hypertension. The research consists of the following phases: creating educational content, designing the mobile application, and evaluating the application and its effectiveness. Within the scope of the research, participants' blood pressure control, self-efficacy levels, and treatment adherence behaviors will be assessed using valid and reliable measurement tools, and the goal is to support these behaviors through the developed mobile health application. Participants' clinical treatment processes, pharmacological treatment adjustments planned by the physician, and changes in medication dosages will be excluded from the scope of the project. No intervention will be made in the medical treatment currently being administered during the study; participants' routine clinical follow-up and treatment processes will continue within the framework of standard care. Only educational and mobile app-based supportive interventions will be implemented within the scope of the research.

The goal of this clinical trial is to study whether having a clinical decision support (CDS) tool available to clinician use will more effectively lower BP 4 weeks after an outpatient visit compared with usual care. The main objective is to assess the impact of the CDS tool, that is embedded with the electronic medical record (EMR), that is available during outpatient clinical encounters, on blood pressure (BP) changes among participants with uncontrolled hypertension. Participants will: Visit the clinic 4 weeks, after their initial clinician visit, for a BP check.

The goal of this study is to establish whether use of a digital intervention can improve adherence and alignment with the Kidney Disease: Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) 2024 Guidelines. A subset of the study will focus on whether the intervention improves outcomes for young adults living with CKD, in the context of the imminent co-location of Children's Health Ireland on the St. James's Hospital campus. Young adults with CKD transitioning to adult services are recognised as a high-risk and vulnerable cohort, with many individuals unaware of increased cardiovascular risk and mortality¹². In response, and in the context of the co-location of Children's Health Ireland on the St. James's Hospital site, a young adult nephrology clinic has been established. The KDIGO CKD 2024 Guidelines identify transition as a period of increased risk and include recommendations regarding cardiovascular risk factor targets and the use of therapies known to delay CKD progression³. Electronic communication is a preferred method for accessing health information among many young adults⁴⁵ and aligns with Sláintecare digital health strategies⁶. A recently established, award-winning St. James's Hospital renal smartphone application is currently used by over 3,000 individuals living with CKD. The study aims to determine whether use of the application improves adherence to KDIGO guideline recommendations, with the objective of delaying CKD progression and associated complications. The application will support optimisation of care by signposting opportunities for evidence-based interventions (e.g., SGLT2 inhibitors, renin-angiotensin system inhibition) to healthcare providers. The application will also provide participants with tailored recommendations, reminders, educational materials, and collection of patient-reported outcome measures. Due to the diverse population and range of specialties at St. James's Hospital, the young adult clinic serves distinct subgroups, including individuals with sickle cell anaemia and survivors of cancer and haematological malignancies. These populations will be examined in the context of KDIGO guideline implementation, contributing to a limited international evidence base. This research evaluates an intervention designed to improve care for adults living with chronic kidney disease.

The vast majority of the 36.2 million individuals admitted to U.S. hospitals are diagnosed with hypertension and experience an elevated blood pressure (BP) reading during hospitalization. There are no guidelines for managing asymptomatically elevated BPs in the inpatient setting, and growing observational evidence suggests that antihypertensive medication intensification increases harm. The proposed study tests whether a unit-based intervention (ACT-BP) can reduce antihypertensive medication intensification and provides information that is scientifically necessary for designing a cluster-randomized clinical trial that identifies the impact of intensification after experiencing an asymptomatically elevated BP on patient outcomes.

Patients undergoing endoscopic surgeries for pituitary adenoma excision suffer from wide swings in blood pressure that might increase bleeding and interfere with the surgical field. Local anethetic infiltration and regional nerve blocks have been used to provide better analgesia, control blood pressure and improve surgical field. Limited studies evaluated shenopalatine ganglion block in pituitary adenoma excision with promising outcomes. The proposed study will compare the efficacy of two local anesthetics, prilocaine and lidocaine, for spenopalatine ganglion block in patients undergoing endoscopic pituitary adenoma excision. Evaluating the control of the intraoperative blood pressure and analgesic sparing are the main objectives of the proposed study.