NEJM <\/em>Editorial: DSMBs Need Protection and Independence:<\/strong> Data and safety monitoring boards (DSMBs) need more protection and independence, according to an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine<\/em><\/a> <\/em>by the journal’s editor, Jeffrey M. Drazen, and Alastair J.J. Wood. Responding to recently uncovered events, in which company sponsors interfered with the independence and authority of the DSMBs in the RECORD, SHARP, and IMPROVE-IT trials, the editorialists “propose fundamental changes in the way DSMBs are constituted, are funded, and report,” and say that DSMBs “should be chosen and convened under the aegis of an independent public body.”<\/p>\n Promising Results for Self-Management of Hypertension: <\/strong>Some 527 hypertensive patients in the U.K. were randomized to either usual care or a self-managed strategy utilizing self-monitoring and telemonitoring of blood pressure and self-titration of antihypertensive drugs. Results of the TASMINH2 (Telemonitoring and Self-Management in the Control of Hypertension) study, which appear in the Lancet<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> show that patients in the self-management group achieved greater reductions in blood pressure than patients in the usual-care group. The authors conclude that “self-management represents an important new addition to the control of hypertension in primary care.”<\/p>\n