Our primary analysis used individuals from the RPGEH GERA cohort, which has been described45,46. We used three trait outcomes: SBP, DBP, and PP, where PP=SBP-DBP. We began with 3,197,317 GERA EHR BP measurements. In KPNC, BP is measured and recorded in the EHR at the beginning of each clinic visit, regardless of the visit reason. Examination of mean BP measurements by medical specialty showed that, compared to Internal Medicine (IM), average BP measurements obtained in the following departments were significantly higher (p<0.0001): anesthesiology, chemical and alcohol dependency, health education, emergency room, hospital care, ophthalmology, physical therapy, rehabilitation, transplant, urgent care, and urology. Higher average BP measurements in these specialties likely indicated effects of acute illnesses or other effects on BP, and we excluded all BP measurements obtained in these specialty visits; 3,046,609 BP measurements (95%) remained after these exclusions. We further excluded 1,127,077 measurements recorded as binned into 5 systolic and 7 diastolic BP ranges (e.g., systolic BP recorded in the range 140-159); this was an early recording method prior to the full EHR implementation in 2006. After noting that
