- Intermountain Health and CareCentra conducted a study where pulmonary disease patients used an AI-powered app to help them track their symptoms.
- After two years, patients using the app had lower care costs and went to the hospital and doctor's office less.
- One patient from the study said the app saved her life.
Jill Bailey, 61, of Bountiful, Utah, describes how her lifelong asthma has caused her to be intubated nine times.
“Every time, they told my family I wasn’t going to make it,” she said. “I was in the hospital more than I was out. I was at the doctor’s more than I was home.”
But in the past year, Bailey said she’s been home more than ever before — thanks to a new app that uses AI to help her know what’s going on in her body.
The many costs of pulmonary disease
Bailey told the story during a media event on Intermountain Hospital’s campus where medical staff introduced a new app they’ve created and have tested for two years, the goal to make life — and breathing — easier for people who have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or asthma.
An Intermountain Health news release called those lung challenges “two of the most common chronic pulmonary conditions in the world.”
Around 8% of people in the U.S. have asthma, per the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, which said it’s one of the most costly diseases. Fewer people have COPD, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it’s one of the top 10 causes of death in America.
Beyond the actual bill from multiple hospital and doctor’s office visits a year, having asthma costs Bailey a lot of money and time, she said.
Bailey also has to pay for multiple medications. She said that the anxiety that comes along with her condition often causes her to miss work, leading to smaller paychecks. And worst of all, she misses out on precious time with her family.
“Nobody wants to be a victim or a patient all the time. People want to be a mother and a daughter, and we want to be grandmas. We want to take care of our families,” she said.
A modern solution for modern times
The app the researchers at Intermountain Health and CareCentra created lets patients with pulmonary disease input their daily health vitals via Bluetooth devices like pulse oximeters, inhalers and personal fitness trackers. An AI feature in the app monitors their numbers, asks them questions about their daily symptoms and gives them suggestions. For example, if the air quality is bad one day, the AI bot will advise patients to stay inside.
Dr. Peter Crossno, senior medical director of respiratory care at Intermountain Health and a principal investigator for the study, said that patients are able to understand what’s going on and why they might be feeling a certain way without having to go to the doctor.
“It’s kind of like having a digital twin in your pocket that’s helping you understand your COPD, your asthma and then reacting, or actually, proactively acting to prevent a series of events that could lead to an exacerbation,” he said.
The patient’s team of doctors, like Crossno, also had access to the patient’s information that was uploaded to the app. That way, doctors knew what was going on between healthcare visits.
“The AI tool allows us to take all of that data, bring it all in, and the little tiny signals that we as healthcare providers may miss, it’s able to amplify the combination of those signals. So we’re actually able to predict, potentially, patients that are declining or on the wrong side of the curve,” Crossno said.
Promising results
The CDC said 4.9 million doctor’s office visits happen each year in the U.S. for asthma, as do 1.4 million emergency department visits.
According to the American Lung Association, “COPD affects 11.7 million adults and accounts for hundreds of thousands of emergency department visits and tens of billions in healthcare costs each year.”
Since patients started using the app for the study two years ago, Intermountain Health said the patients’ costs have been reduced by 57%, hospitalizations happen 50% less often and emergency department visits 20% less often. The study included 1,200 patients across five Intermountain Health hospitals.
One of the most surprising results, Crossno said, was how well older patients received the technology.
He said many of the researchers went into the study thinking the older demographic wouldn’t adapt to the app as well or be as motivated to use it. “What we actually found is our older patient population, especially in the COPD population, were more engaged with the technology. They utilized it more. They played with the app more. They worked with the devices more. And that really went against conventional thinking.”
Crossno said that finding is proof that new, growing technologies “can benefit all patients, all ages and hopefully all disease types.”
Bailey is one patient reaping the benefits of AI and medicine.
“This app has saved my life,” she said. “It helps educate you, and the more you educate the patients, the more that they’re in control.”