Propeller Health Asthma Management Results in 78% Fewer Asthma Symptoms

About Propeller Health

Propeller Health is a leading digital therapeutics company operating in the US, Europe, and Asia. Founded in 2007, the company focuses on helping patients with chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and COPD better manage their conditions. Propeller’s sophisticated approach to respiratory health care enables individuals and clinicians to better track and manage worsening symptoms.

Help Patients Identify and Manage Environmental Breathing Hazards

The World Health Organization has established pollen and air pollution as risk factors for asthma and COPD sufferers. Without proper treatment, patients can experience severe respiratory symptoms. Propeller sought to help patients learn about their own environmental triggers so that they can take steps to avoid or mitigate them with more informed self-management behaviors.

Understand the Environmental Impact on Symptoms

Propeller has demonstrated the correlation between air pollution and asthma and COPD symptoms by tracking patients’ environmental exposure and patterns of inhaler medication use. Such insights into environmental triggers for individual sufferers may help healthcare professionals deliver more personalized treatments. In turn, patients can better understand their sensitivities and take measures to prevent symptom flare-ups in response to the environment. Propeller has published several studies evaluating the association between air pollution and asthma symptoms, including PM_2.5, coal-fired power plant emissions, ozone, and PM₁₀. This information is helpful for cities and public health practitioners to address these issues locally and advocate for improved air pollution regulation nationally.

Prevent Unnecessary Doctor Visits & Hospitalizations

Research shows that someone with uncontrolled asthma has 1.5 times higher odds of being hospitalized for their asthma and 1.8 times higher odds of having a clinic visit than someone with controlled asthma. With its optimized app-connected inhaler program, Propeller looked to increase the number of symptom-free days for patients and reduce the number of preventable medical visits and hospitalizations.

Help Patients Identify and Manage Environmental Breathing Hazards

Understand the Environmental Impact on Symptoms

Prevent Unnecessary Doctor Visits & Hospitalizations

The Solution

Tracking Medication Use with a Connected Inhaler

To help patients and healthcare providers understand the real impact of environmental triggers on an individual’s symptoms, Propeller developed a connected inhaler to track where and when an individual used their inhaler medication.

Via an attached sensor, the connected inhaler registers each time users take their prescribed medicine, logging location and time to track use - and sends this information to a connected patient app.

Utilizing Environmental Data For Insight into Symptom Triggers

As users create a log of their medication use via the connected inhaler sensor, the Propeller companion app also uses BreezoMeter’s live environmental information to check known allergen and pollutant concentrations at the user’s location.

The additional context provided by BreezoMeter helps determine an individual’s specific environmental triggers that may be associated with symptom flare-ups.

Help Individuals Avoid Triggers

The Propeller app allows patients and healthcare providers to gain better insight into an individual’s specific sensitivities and create optimized treatment plans.

Users of Propeller’s connected health solution also benefit from predictive environmental alerts that warn of changes in environmental triggers and allow for preemptive action when it really matters.

The Benefits

Significant Increase in Symptom-Free Days

Multiple studies show Propeller’s app-connected inhaler resulted in positive outcomes for asthma and COPD management, especially partnered with clinical care. Personalized treatments and air quality warnings give patients a better way to cope with their sensitivities, resulting in a significant increase in symptom-free days, and a reduction of asthma symptoms beginning after just 1 month of use.

84% Reduction in Rescue Inhaler Use

The use of a companion app enables patients to remain vigilant and improve their use of medicine and take preventive action against potential triggers in the environment. In a year-long population-based observational study, across two different studies, Propeller saw a 58% improvement in medication adherence, an 84% reduction in rescue inhaler use and 72% of participants gained control of their asthma .

Hospitalizations Reduced by 57%

With better disease management, Propeller has seen the need for COPD-related acute healthcare utilization reduce by 35% and visits to emergency departments and hospitalizations for asthma reduce by 57% over a 12-month period.

"Asthma and COPD sufferers are susceptible to a wide range of environmental triggers: Wildfire smoke, pollen and a variety of other air pollutants. With the air quality information provided by BreezoMeter’s real-time environmental intelligence, we’re able to provide a highly personalized approach to asthma and COPD management."