UC Davis Health and Propeller Health have announced a new collaboration that will offer personalized treatment for high-risk patients with asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

UC Davis Health will provide the Propeller remote monitoring program to eligible patients. It includes sensors, a mobile app, web portal, and personalized support. The sensors attach to a patient’s inhaler to capture unique signals that record events, such as medication usage or respiration. This data will be transmitted to UC Davis Health’s electronic health record system to support patient enrollment and remote patient monitoring via single sign-on. Eventually, the remote monitoring system may be expanded to patients in other University of California health systems.

“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 the Comprehensive COPD Clinic. “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.”

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.” —Brooks Kuhn

Benefits of personalized care program

Through the EHR system integration, clinicians will be able to track a patient’s day-to-day use of their inhalers, allowing them to monitor the use of “everyday medications” that keep the lungs functioning optimally. They’ll also be able to track rescue medications, which are used when the patient is short of breath and needs more help.

“The rescue use will be key in alerting clinicians that the patient may be experiencing early signs of a COPD exacerbation,” explained Krystal Craddock, clinical operations manager for respiratory care. “We will then be able to reach out to these patients and treat them early, hopefully avoiding unnecessary emergency room visits or hospitalizations.”

COPD describes a group of diseases that include emphysema and chronic bronchitis. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 16 million Americans suffer from COPD. The CDC also stated that this number is likely higher as many have yet to receive a diagnosis or treatment.

“There are so many patients in our community that could benefit from a program like this and improve their clinical outcomes,” Kuhn added. “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.”

The new collaboration is a project of the UC Davis Health Operations Center of Excellence, a partnership between Innovation Technology and Clinical Operations. The goal is large-scale transformation through digital monitoring, virtual care, AI automation, and the latest technologies.

Building on a culture of innovation

This collaboration is the latest initiative from UC Davis Health to treat COPD patients with digital health technologies. In 2022, the Comprehensive COPD Clinic created the first remote patient monitoring program in the Sacramento region for high-risk patients with COPD.

“We are committed to advancing digital and data-driven models of care to continue to provide exceptional patient care and experiences,” said Kuhn. “Our collaboration with Propeller Health will help us empower our COPD patients with health technology tools to help remove barriers to care, emphasize preventive care, and reduce hospital readmissions.”

Propeller Health, a ResMed company, is a leader in digital health and therapeutics for asthma and COPD. In over 150 peer-reviewed studies and articles, Propeller’s FDA-cleared and CE-marked Digital Therapeutics Platform has demonstrated improved quality of life and clinical outcomes while lowering health care costs.

"Collaborating with UC Davis Health demonstrates our continued commitment to patients as well as physicians by providing care-connected journeys and actionable insights to better manage chronic conditions," said Susa Monacelli, general manager for Propeller Health.