– The pCard: Formerly called the Parameters Card, the pCard is a card conceived and marketed by Keyaub that helps to prevent or delay the onset of hypertension and diabetes by tracking its owner’s blood pressure and fasting blood sugar values over time. In so doing, the pCard helps its owner to be alerted early when his/her blood pressure or fasting blood sugar values near the respective ranges that will set them as high, and indirectly prompts him/her to implement the recommended lifestyle modifications that will help to decrease these values or to prevent them from increasing further. The pCard also includes brief words of education on most of the basic things the average individual needs to know on hypertension and diabetes, written in a simple language freed of all technical jargon, and guides on how to fill the pCard so as to assist any health professional that will not know how to fill it or will experience difficulties in the process.
Since screening for hypertension should start at 18 years of age as stated by numerous international health institutions and organisations including the WHO, Keyaub recommends the pCard to every individual of 18 years and above who is neither hypertensive nor diabetic (the pBook is what we recommend to those that are either hypertensive, diabetic, or both).
The pCard identifies itself as cost-effective means for prevention or delay of hypertension and diabetes. It is light, handy and appealing, and it can last for a lifetime if well kept by its owner.
We love to remind whenever possible that people owning a pCard should be disciplined at respecting the rendezvous dates to check their blood pressure or fasting blood sugar as set the day their pCard was lastly filled, and be disciplined at keeping the pCard to never have it missing; these two recommendations are so important that when one of them is not
followed, the pCard becomes almost worthless.
Today the pCard has sold more than 600 copies. It is available at Azire Integrated Health Centre, commonly known as “Preventive”, in Bamenda.
Hypertension and diabetes rarely develop overnight. Almost every
time, they are results of the consistent and unnoticed increase over a prolonged period of time of the blood pressure and blood sugar respectively. Hypertension and diabetes are easier to prevent for the person that never loses track of the evolution of his/her blood pressure and blood sugar respectively, yet majority of people are not aware of how evolve
these numbers over time. A major consequence of this unawareness is the unhindered progressive increase of the blood pressure or blood sugar till the point where a diagnosis of hypertension or diabetes is established―for those who eventually develop any or both of the diseases; this diagnosis is often made during routine clinical visits, and for the least
fortunate, after the onset of one or more complications.
Coming up with a way to push the non-hypertensive and non-diabetic individuals (who in general go to the hospital only when they are sick or so) to go to the hospital when it is time to check their blood pressure or their blood sugar, regardless of them feeling healthy or not, will hence be of major contribution in helping them to prevent or delay the onset of hypertension and diabetes. It is in that light that Keyaub developed the pCard, as a tool to
help people to never lose sight of the evolution of such important parameters as their blood pressure and blood sugar, hence, boosting their chances to prevent hypertension and diabetes.
The pCard tracks the owner’s blood pressure and fasting blood sugar in a classified way, sets a reminder for the next assessment through the rendezvous dates based on the recorded value at the current assessment, and encourages the owner by some words of observation
to keep the blood pressure and the blood sugar in the good ranges. To top it off, it distils a concise, jargon-free and easy to understand education on both hypertension and diabetes. It does all these with an amazing appeal.
Filling the pCard is easy, but there is more to that than just writing down the value of the blood pressure or glycemia after measuring them, that is why we recommend it to be done by health professionals and following the well established guidelines that are outlined in the pCard for that purpose.
Last but not least, the pCard is not a replacement for the hospital book and will not claim being more important, but it achieves best what a hospital book has consistently failed to do: convey the importance big attention to blood pressure and blood sugar values deserve in mingling them with tons of other medical information. It does this by offering a better visual
of the evolution of these parameters hence a greater level of attention and meaning.
As it is of culture to Keyaub, the pCard has been consistently improved since its initial introduction in the market in 2019, and so far, 3 versions have been released, with each version being its predecessor with more or less tweaks and improvements. Efforts are underway to make the pCard more efficient in achieving its core function: to help prevent or delay the onset of hypertension and diabetes.
Formerly called the Parameters Notebook, the pBook is a notebook
developed and marketed by Keyaub that offers a better and convenient way for hypertensive and diabetic patients to keep the values of their blood pressure and blood sugar efficiently. More like the pCard, the pBook also distils brief educative texts on most of the basic knowledge the average hypertensive or diabetic individual needs to have on hypertension and diabetes, on step by step guides on how to self-assess the blood pressure and blood sugar
at home, and on a step by step guide on how to fill the pBook.
All these texts are written in simple and easy to understand terms, free of any technical jargon. The pBook can store up to 1224 values of blood pressure and blood sugar. It is indicated to every person who is hypertensive, diabetic, or both, and it serves best the ones who own a blood pressure machine or a glucometer for home use.
The pBook is not a replacement for the hospital book and will not claim being more important. It is aimed at improving the way hypertensive and diabetic patients store their blood pressure and blood sugar values and it does that better than the hospital book.
Today the pBook has sold more than 900 copies. It is available at the Diabetic and Hypertension Unit of the Bamenda Regional Hospital, at the Diabetic and Hypertension Unit of the CBCHS (Cameroon Baptist Convention Health Services) Nkwen Health Centre commonly known as “Mbingo Annex”, and at Azire Integrated Health Centre commonly known as “Preventive”; all of these sites are in Bamenda.
Genesis of the pBook: People who have been diagnosed with hypertension, diabetes or both definitely need to assess their blood pressure and blood sugar more often. For most of them, this is done during their hospital visits and at home―for those owning a blood pressure or blood sugar-monitoring device for private use. The values are usually recorded on sheets of paper, in their hospital books, or in a separate book. All of these options are not bad but they
pose some problems: the sheets of paper can easily get misplaced, the hospital book stores lots of other medical information making it quite difficult to pay close attention to the changes of the blood pressure and blood sugar values, the health care provider (most often the doctor) who sometimes needs to get a glimpse of the evolutionary pattern of these values for a guidance in his/her therapeutic approach will have to spend a lengthy while skimming
through the patient’s hospital book for that purpose, to name a few.
We thought that improving the way the blood pressure and blood sugar are recorded, hence alleviating the abovementioned problems, will be an important step in helping the hypertensive and diabetics ameliorate their blood pressure and blood sugar control respectively. It is in that light that, using a similar concept to that employed to design the pCard (formerly Parameters Card) for prevention of hypertension and diabetes, Keyaub
produced a notebook the pBook destined to improve the keeping of the blood pressure and blood sugar records of patients diagnosed with hypertension or diabetes.
The pBook has been elaborately designed to suit both the patient owning a BP machine or a glucometer for home checks of his/her blood pressure or his/her glycemia respectively, and the one who can only afford to do so during his/her hospital visits, in storing their blood pressure and glycemia values efficiently. The pBook can still get missing, but this is less likely to happen than it is for the sheets of paper as mentioned earlier; the health care provider will still have to spend some time skimming through the pBook in case of need of information
about past values of blood pressure and blood sugar for therapeutic guidance, but this time will be greatly reduced compared to when he/she has to get this information from the patient’s hospital book as mentioned earlier; all these advantages make the pBook the ideal alternative for the function it has been built for hence a highly recommended tool to every hypertensive and diabetic individual in their battle for a controlled blood pressure and a
controlled blood sugar respectively.
As it is of culture to Keyaub, the pBook has been consistently improved since its initial introduction in the market in 2019, and so far, 7 versions have been released, with each version being its predecessor with more or less tweaks and improvements. More efforts areunderway to make the pBook not just more efficient in achieving its current function of helping diabetic and hypertensive patients store their blood pressure and blood sugar values efficiently, but to expand this scope of the pBook to cover those other parameters which like
blood pressure and blood sugar, are of great importance to be monitored consistently for the successful management of hypertensive and diabetic patient.