Asthma and COPD Digital Inhaler Data Into EHR

SAN FRANCISCO – October 5, 2021 – Dignity Health, which is part of 21-state health system CommonSpirit Health, and Propeller Health, a leader in digital health and therapeutics for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), announced today that they have integrated Propeller’s platform into Dignity Health’s electronic health record (EHR) system. 

This integration has been fully implemented in seven communities served by Dignity Health physicians and clinics in Arizona and California. With the EHR integration, Dignity Health and Propeller could potentially scale the tool to hundreds of physicians who care for thousands of patients with an eligible diagnosis. Now, the Propeller solution can be ordered and managed through the EHR like any other medication or treatment. Enrollment is streamlined for providers and staff as they don’t have to leave their clinical workflow: it now takes two minutes to enroll a patient, which is a 75-80% reduction in time. 

“Digitally connected health devices and platforms are helping improve care for patients with chronic conditions, like asthma and COPD, by giving providers better insights into day-to-day management of disease,” said Dr. Francisco Rhein, vice president of innovation and digital care transformation, CommonSpirit Health. “We’ve created a seamless experience through the integration of these programs within the patient’s EHR, reducing barriers to adoption and administrative burdens, such as logging onto a separate website.” 

Propeller’s FDA-cleared platform helps patients and their clinicians manage chronic respiratory diseases to help improve health outcomes. At one of  CommonSpirit’s Dignity Health medical groups, asthma patients enrolled in the program who used Propeller’s inhaler sensors saw asthma-related emergency room visits decrease by 54 percent and combined asthma-related emergency room and hospitalization events decrease by 57 percent during the 365 days post-enrollment when compared to the one-year period before enrollment. 

“Propeller can allow a more expansive view of our patients’ respiratory medication management,” said Dr. Christine Braid, medical director of virtual care and innovations, CommonSpirit Health. “We can watch for albuterol medication overuse and initiation of maintenance inhalers and intervene when delicate life situations change.” 

CommonSpirit’s Dignity Health medical groups have utilized Propeller Health’s solution for many years. It is available to Dignity Health Medical Foundation physicians in California, Arizona and Nevada. Integrating the Propeller platform with Dignity Health’s EHR elevates the partnership by streamlining workflows and putting real-time data, alerts, and messaging in front of clinicians so that they can make informed decisions on treatment. Through this integration, clinicians can now identify and enroll patients who could benefit from access to Propeller self-management tools, and remotely monitor their patients through data visualizations and notifications embedded into their EHR workflows, making it easier for them to identify patients who need clinical intervention.

“One of the key benefits of the EHR integration is the ability to understand patient requests for refills,” said Dr. Rajan Merchant, an Allergy, Asthma, and Clinical Immunology specialist with Woodland Clinic Medical Group/Dignity Health Medical Foundation. “We are acutely dealing with unhealthy to hazardous air quality due to the wildfires in the region and requests for inhaler refills have increased across the board. We can connect these requests with data from Propeller to manage symptoms, establish severity, and reduce risk of exacerbations. Additionally, remote monitoring in conjunction with telehealth tools have helped decrease COVID-19 exposure risk to our vulnerable patients with chronic respiratory issues.” 

“This collaboration with CommonSpirit to integrate the Propeller platform with their EHR demonstrates our continued commitment to improve the entire care journey for patients and physicians in treating chronic respiratory disease,” said Susa Monacelli, Propeller Health general manager.

About Dignity Health

Dignity Health is a multi-state nonprofit network of 10,000 physicians, more than 60,000 employees, 41 acute care hospitals, and 400-plus care-centers, including community hospitals, urgent care, surgery and imaging centers, home health, and primary care clinics in Arizona, California, and Nevada. Dignity Health is dedicated to providing compassionate, high-quality, and affordable patient-centered care with special attention to the poor and underserved. Dignity Health is a part of CommonSpirit Health, a nonprofit health system committed to advancing health for all people and dedicated to serving the common good. For more information, please visit our website at www.DignityHealth.org.

About Propeller Health

At Propeller Health, our mission is to empower every person living with a chronic respiratory disease to take control of their health so they can live a better life. As a leader in digital health and therapeutics for asthma and COPD, we work to improve clinical outcomes, healthcare costs, and quality of life by supporting patients in managing their condition with their healthcare provider.

Propeller’s platform includes FDA-cleared medical devices, consumer apps and access to clinical data for provider monitoring throughout the care journey, to create value to all stakeholders. We enable a personalized digital experience with a human touch used by patients, caregivers, providers, payers, pharmaceutical companies and other healthcare organizations across the US, Europe and Asia.

Propeller Health is a wholly owned subsidiary of ResMed. For more information, visit www.propellerhealth.com.

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