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Blood PRessure Monitoring?

Senseotech

Senseotech

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Nov 23, 2009
785
28
NC
So, I'm in the market for a blood pressure cuff/monitor thats iOS compatible so I can easily track my results. I've seen both the iHealth BP3 Cuff/Dock and the Withings Blood Pressure Monitor. The price is right on the iHealth, but I travel a lot and the Withings looks nice for that since it doesn't have the dock taking up space. Has anyone used either of these products or know of something else that has a good blend of price and portability?
 
I have been using the ihealth. I can use it with the iPad or iPhone. Makes tracking things very easy.

I would buy it again.
 
Any complaints? The only reason I'm even looking elsewhere is that the idea of a large dock doesn't appeal to me since I travel around a lot and really don't enjoy the thought of ANOTHER bulky item to carry around with me.
 
ET iPhone Home said:
How exactly do these work? Do you just strap that strapper, open the app, and that's it? There's not a pump like they do at the Doctor's office?
Click to expand...

As best I can see, the cuff (or the dock unit in the case of the iHealth) has a battery that once told to pump by the iOS app, will initiate the actual pumping of the cuff. It works a lot like the other automatic cuffs on the market, only with iOS integration to track and record your numbers.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

For those that tried these units, are they accurate? I use a Omron at home, but bulky to travel with.
 
iamartimus said:
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

For those that tried these units, are they accurate? I use a Omron at home, but bulky to travel with.
Click to expand...

From this review, they appear to be just as accurate as hand-measurement, which is better than I can get out of the old auto-cuff we have floating around the house which can go a little crazy on the high side some times.
 
Senseotech said:
As best I can see, the cuff (or the dock unit in the case of the iHealth) has a battery that once told to pump by the iOS app, will initiate the actual pumping of the cuff. It works a lot like the other automatic cuffs on the market, only with iOS integration to track and record your numbers.
Click to expand...

That is so interesting! I'm just fascinated by how this works. Wow!!
 
Thanks for making this thread. Anyone have personal experience with the Withings and iHealth monitors both? My wife is currently on a cocktail of drugs (cancer) and due to clotting is on Warfarin (blood thinner). But one of the side effects of some of the anti-cancer meds is a massive BP spike out of the blue so we have to monitor her BP activity several times during the day. Currently doing this with an iPad and a Pages spreadsheet but something more automatic would be a nicer convenience. Travel-worthiness is a must.
 
ReallyBigFeet said:
Thanks for making this thread. Anyone have personal experience with the Withings and iHealth monitors both? My wife is currently on a cocktail of drugs (cancer) and due to clotting is on Warfarin (blood thinner). But one of the side effects of some of the anti-cancer meds is a massive BP spike out of the blue so we have to monitor her BP activity several times during the day. Currently doing this with an iPad and a Pages spreadsheet but something more automatic would be a nicer convenience. Travel-worthiness is a must.
Click to expand...

I actually took the plunge with the Withings and I'm loving it. Its small enough to travel with, the app is easy to use, and the numbers are right on according to my doc. It has an automatic mode that I personally use all the time; it takes three measurements in succession with 30-60 seconds (user definable) in between, then averages them. According to my doctor, doing that makes for a much more accurate number since sometimes one-off measures can be skewed.
 
Thank you very much for the feedback. With the Withings device, you hook your iPhone directly into the cuff during the monitoring session itself, correct? In other words, the iPhone is both the 'display' for the BP monitor as well as the recorder for the event so it can store/graph/analyze it over time, right?

PS: Beautiful part of the country you live in there. I lived in Greensboro for a few years right after my wife and I married and some of our most cherished memories revolve around Grandfather Mountain and all the hiking in the surrounding area.
 
FWIW, I bought the Withings a couple of weeks ago. Love it. I'd been using an Omron for a couple of years and laboriously keying three separate sets of measurements into a spreadsheet daily so I could plot a chart. I also weighed myself daily and keyed that into the same chart. What a royal pain.

Withings does it all for me. I was so taken with the BP monitor, I bought their wi-fi scale the same day. The scale is awesome. I just weigh myself whenever/whereever and my weight data magically finds it's way onto my chart on my iphone or ipad. It's completely effortless - which is good, because I'm lazy when it comes to tedious (but important) stuff. :)
 
ReallyBigFeet said:
Thank you very much for the feedback. With the Withings device, you hook your iPhone directly into the cuff during the monitoring session itself, correct? In other words, the iPhone is both the 'display' for the BP monitor as well as the recorder for the event so it can store/graph/analyze it over time, right?

PS: Beautiful part of the country you live in there. I lived in Greensboro for a few years right after my wife and I married and some of our most cherished memories revolve around Grandfather Mountain and all the hiking in the surrounding area.
Click to expand...

The iDevice is the the actual brains of the entire operation. You use the app to initiate the pumping (the pump runs off its own batteries though, so no power drain), monitor the actual measurement, and it also tracks and graphs the measure based on time of day, so you can see if you're higher in the morning or at night, or if its changed over the last x days/weeks/months.

PS: It is lovely, especially when mother nature gives you the mildest winter in decades. Its supposed to hit the upper 60's today and I'm loving every minute of it :)
 
I felt it better to resurrect this thread than start another. It helps keep the search engine happier.

I bought an iHealth Blood Pressure Monitor from Target for $29.99 for no other reason than it was on sale from $99 and I'm a geek. I love gadgets. I bought it Monday took it home and used it Tuesday evening. The readings that I was getting were off the scales. I was getting 176/120 and 184/125. I've never had a blood pressure problem, so I just figured it to be very inaccurate.

Still concerned about it yesterday, I went to CVS to test my blood pressure. I got the same readings. Just to be sure, I went across the street to Walgreens where my blood pressure was checked by a human. Same results.

It appears that buying a piece of geek technology may have saved my life. I was really high up there on the stroke or heart attack scale at only 46 years old. This may be the best $30 I've spent.

*Note* On accuracy, this thing is dead on. Right after the nurse checked my blood pressure, I used it and it was right on it. I don't work for the company and I don't get paid a cut if you buy one.
ihealth.jpg
 
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