RPM Partnership to Provide Personalized Treatment for COPD, Asthma

To support care for high-risk chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma, UC Davis Heath will provide eligible patients with a Propeller Health remote patient monitoring (RPM) program that provides personalized treatment through sensors, a mobile application, and a web portal.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), COPD is a group of diseases that cause airflow blockage and breathing issues, affecting 16 million Americans. Asthma, which affects the lungs and causes repeated bouts of wheezing, breathlessness, and chest tightness, affects 25 million people across the country.

Efforts to expand treatment access for these conditions vary. The Propeller program leverages technology to remotely monitor health metrics that integrate with the EHR.

A part of health technology company ResMed, Propeller Health provides digital health and therapeutics solutions for asthma and COPD.

“Digital health devices and platforms are helping improve care for patients with chronic conditions, like COPD, by providing clinicians a more expansive view of our patient’s disease management,” said Brooks Kuhn, assistant professor of medicine and co-director of UC Davis' Comprehensive COPD Clinic, in a press release. “This collaboration will help us improve the clinical outcomes of our COPD patients by identifying the need for interventions early so we can avoid serious exacerbations, preserve their lung function and improve their quality of life.”

As part of the program, patients are provided with sensors that attach to an inhaler to gather event-recording signals such as inhaler use and respiration patterns. This data is then passed on to the UC Davis Health Epic EHR system. 

“There are so many patients in our community that could benefit from a program like this and improve their clinical outcomes,” said Kuhn in the press release. “I appreciate all the hard work of our UC Davis information technology team, who helped integrate the Propeller platform with our EHR system so we can streamline workflows and efficiently put real-time data, alerts, and messaging in front of our clinicians.”

Although the RPM program will initially only be available to eligible UC Davis Health patients, it will be expanded to external UC healthcare locations and affiliates.

Recent research has shown the extensive capabilities of RPM and telehealth in treating COPD.

Research from March published in the International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease found that COPD patients benefited from remote cardiorespiratory monitoring, experiencing reduced all-cause and cardiopulmonary hospitalization rates.

With a cohort of 126 COPD patients, the study involved a retrospective analysis of unplanned hospitalizations resulting from care received at an outpatient pulmonary practice. To be eligible for the study, patients must have participated in an RPM program for at least one year and have been a patient of the practice for at least two years.

The RPM tools included a remote physiologic monitor that received validation for clinical accuracy and adherence among patients with COPD. Additionally, it included a three-component system containing undergarment-adhering cardiorespiratory sensors, an in-home hub, and a web-based clinical dashboard.

After analyzing EMR data from one year pre- and post-intervention, researchers found that the RPM intervention led to a decrease in all-cause hospitalizations. They also found that the average length of stay during all-cause hospitalizations was shorter following the intervention.