Effectiveness of the Propeller Health (Formerly Asthmapolis) Monitoring System
Condition: Asthma
MeSH terms: Asthma
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      Propeller Health is collaborating with Dignity Health (formerly Catholic Healthcare West
      (CHW)) to carry out a focused demonstration project to evaluate the effectiveness and
      potential cost savings of a deployment of the Propeller Health approach to asthma management.
      The Propeller Health goal is to bring together the best technology and asthma insight in
      order to provide Dignity Health with an engaging, data-driven chronic care program to improve
      asthma management and lower healthcare utilization costs, and to respond to
      prevention-focused reforms to health insurance laws.

      This project has been designed to implement and evaluate a data-driven program to improve
      asthma management and control and lower direct costs through reductions in healthcare
      utilization. This program has been developed by Propeller Health and has gone through
      preliminary testing. Each subject participating in the study will receive an Propeller Health
      device, which captures the time and location of use of inhaled short-acting bronchodilators
      over a twelve-month period. This information is processed and delivered at regular intervals
      to the patient and his or her provider to support improved asthma management.
    

Detailed description: 
      The purpose of the study is to evaluate the impact of the adoption of the Propeller Health
      system into a healthcare organization, and to provide sufficient information to inform
      decision making for potential future adopters. The researchers believe that the Propeller
      Health system has the potential to improve asthma control by providing rescue inhaler
      actuation data and tailored asthma management tips to patients with uncontrolled asthma, and
      rescue inhaler actuation data to their providers. Improvements in asthma control should be
      reflected in reductions in healthcare utilization for asthma, and potentially for general
      healthcare utilization. Reductions in utilization would result in lower healthcare costs. The
      study has been designed to capture data on individual subject asthma control, and changes in
      utilization and costs over a one-year introduction period.
    

Intervention name(s): Propeller Health System (formerly Asthmapolis System)
Intervention type(s): Device
Intervention description(s): The Propeller (formerly Asthmapolis) system works through the provision of information to patients and their providers. With the Propeller (formerly Asthmapolis) device in place, each actuation of a patient's rescue inhaler is recorded with an automatic time stamp; in many circumstances, the location at which the device is actuated is also captured and recorded. Actuation data are then securely transmitted to Propeller (formerly Asthmapolis) where events and an assessment of asthma control can be viewed in secure online interfaces. The information is also compiled into individual reports that are returned to the patient and his or her provider. Patients also receive customized suggestions for asthma management based on their actuation history.
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: None (Open Label)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: asthma; healthcare utilization costs