Keeping a close eye on your blood pressure is about to get a lot easier thanks to the New York City Department of Health.
NYC will be spending 1. 8 million dollars to install 300 self-measuring blood pressure kiosks.The machines will be placed in pharmacies as well as city-owned building in areas that have shown high rates of hypertension. The NYC Health Department hopes to install the 300 kiosks at a rate of 100 per year.
According to the health department, the kiosks will give residents of New York's 5 boroughs a better opportunity to keep track of their health on their own, and to seek medical care when needed, instead of adding to NYC's skyrocketing emergency medical costs.
The kiosks made by PharmaSmart, are designed to read a patient's blood pressure and anonymously send the data to a central location that will compile the information and help the Heath Department determine what areas have the highest blood pressures. Once the problem communities are identified the city will take measures to combat the issues.
Currently, the New York City Health Department has 94 free blood pressure measuring kiosks located in pharmacies in neighborhoods that continually show high rates of hypertension, i.e. Harlem, Central Brooklyn, and the South Bronx.
The kiosks that have been in service since the pilot program began in 2011 have recorded nearly 700,000 blood-pressure readings. The plan to distribute the kiosks has been idle for the past 7 years due to the lack of funding.
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