When ResMed surveyed U.S. consumer attitudes about digital health technology in 2019, the company reported that the majority of U.S. adults favored digital health tech. Also in 2019, ResMed acquired Propeller Health, a digital therapeutics company. Propeller Health focuses on developing products to treat people with chronic respiratory diseases: specifically chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Propeller Health recently announced a collaboration with University of California’s UC Davis Health for advanced personalized treatment for UC Davis Health patients with asthma and COPD.
The UC Davis Health and Propeller Health collaboration focuses on remote patient monitoring to improve patient health outcomes. UC Davis Health will use Propeller’s remote monitoring system. The program includes sensors attached to patients’ inhalers plus a mobile app and web portal. The program transmits the sensor data directly to the US Davis electronic health record (EHR) system. Care teams will use the data to design personalized treatment programs.
The collaboration is supported by the results of a recent study published by researchers from Pulmonary Associates of Richmond, Spire health, and the UT Health Division of Pulmonary Diseases in the International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Disease in March 2023. Use of Remote Cardiorespiratory Monitoring Is Associated with a Reduction in Hospitalizations for Subjects with COPD was a pre and post retrospective study of 126 subjects. All subjects in the study had one or more unplanned hospitalizations or ED visits in the previous year, who then enrolled in a RPM program. For inclusion in the study, the subjects also needed to use RPM for 12 months or more and be patients of the involved practice for at least 12 months before and after beginning RPM. The results showed reductions in both for hospitalizations and emergency department visits. The group had 137 unplanned all-cause hospitalizations, 88 cardiopulmonary hospitalizations, and 61 ED visits in the 12 months before beginning RPM. In the 12 months after beginning RPM, the same patients had 48 unplanned all-cause hospitalizations, 32, cardiopulmonary hospitalizations, and 34 ED visits. These reductions add up to significant cost savings.
Propeller Health and UC Davis Health are working together to improve access to care, promote preventive care, and reduce hospital and ED visits for patients with COPD and asthma. Future work will focus on additional chronic diseases and conditions.
