The Employee Hypertension Program was launched in 2015 to help Penn Medicine employees achieve and sustain controlled blood pressure. To reduce clinician burden, the program team, including members of Way to Health and Acceleration Lab, built an automated chatbot and integrated it into the program in 2021. The chatbot requests and logs blood pressure readings, triages measurements and participant messages, provides scripted responses, and escalates readings and messages requiring provider attention.

In a new publication, the team shares details about the development, implementation, and performance of this tool. The authors report a triage accuracy of 99 percent, the ability to handle nearly 75 percent of messages without escalation, and high patient satisfaction ratings of the program after chatbot integration.