Smart Community Hypertension Management: A Narrative Review of Promises and Challenges

Hypertension control remains a significant challenge in primary care worldwide. Conventional community management, which relies on manual follow-ups and scattered records, often leads to inefficiencies and inequities. The emergence of mobile health, Internet of Things devices, and artificial intelligence offers transformative solutions. This narrative review synthesizes recent evidence on smart hypertension management in community settings. Here, we identified three dominant management approaches. One approach uses mobile health systems to support patient self-management. Another employs remote monitoring platforms to enable timely clinical interventions. A third applies artificial intelligence tools to automate follow-up processes. Evidence indicates these smart models can lead to clinically meaningful improvements. For instance, remote monitoring interventions have been associated with improved blood pressure control rates, in some cases by 15-25 percentage points. They also optimize resource allocation, particularly for underserved groups. However, key challenges persist, including the digital divide and data security concerns. This review synthesizes evidence demonstrating that smart management models can yield measurable, quantitative improvements in blood pressure control and resource efficiency. Future efforts must therefore be guided by this evidence, prioritizing large-scale trials to strengthen the findings and developing supportive policies on equity and data governance to ensure these solutions are effective, equitable, and secure.