Fig. 3

Examples of different approaches to illustrating BP goals ranges and how to communicate if a BP measurement is out of the goal range. A shows no goal range and B shows dotted lines as goal ranges; both approaches are used in EHRs and neither are informative for patients or physicians. C illustrates our greyscale goal range bands—two different shades of grey are used to denote the systolic and diastolic BP goal ranges, with no special affordances to denote out of range values. We tried several techniques to denote out of goal range BP measurements. D illustrates the use of larger symbols for out of range values; however, these were difficult to distinguish from in range values unless the symbols became obnoxiously large. E used colored symbols and F used colored fills below the line; however, neither option was well received by patients or physicians. G, H and I demonstrate our use of color to replace the grey bands and the introduction of the like-with-like paradigm—if the data points and connecting line are within the goal range band of matching color then the BP is in a healthy range; otherwise the BP is too high/low