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Centers for Disease Control urges pharmacists to only use clinically validated blood pressure kiosks

February 7, 2017

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently called on pharmacists to use only clinically validated and interoperable blood pressure, or BP, kiosks.

The CDC published a resource guide in December 2016 titled, "Using the Pharmacists' Patient Care Process to Manage High Blood Pressure: A Resource Guide for Pharmacists."

The guide was developed by the CDC in collaboration with the American Medical Association and the American Pharmacists Association. 

The CDC guide includes a resource section on pharmacy BP kiosks, stating that pharmacists should "only use clinically validated blood pressure kiosks," and "implement technology to automatically transmit data from kiosk to pharmacy computer system." If these criteria are met, the guide instructs pharmacists to encourage patient use of the kiosk, evaluate BP levels, assess medication adherence and "take action as appropriate."