Clinical Blog
Published: March 14, 2023

From 2010 to Today: Happy Birthday, Propeller!

Today marks an incredible milestone: Propeller Health’s 13th birthday. What began as a quest to solve a public health problem has turned into a global precision digital health company driving meaningful, measurable change in the industry. 

Recognizing early on that creating value for all parties in health – health systems, clinicians, payers, and pharmaceutical companies – is essential in order to drive sustainable change, we’ve spent the past 13 years pioneering innovative solutions that always keep the patient at the center. Our story is one of hard work, dedication, collaboration, and above all, a mission to uplift every person living with a chronic disease so they can breathe easier, stay healthier, and live better lives. 

Propeller was founded on the heels of a then-mysterious string of asthma attacks in Barcelona in the 1980s. It took 8 years for experts to identify soybean dust – not yet recognized as an allergen – as the trigger. One CDC disease detective envisioned a better way to monitor public health: by using technology to track medication usage and symptoms. With this mission, Propeller was born. 

Over the last 13 years, we have become a leader in digital therapeutics, adapting our mission – and holding fast to our values – as the healthcare landscape changed around us. With stakeholders spanning the entirety of the care continuum, we’ve forged meaningful partnerships to demonstrate the efficacy of our platform in 80+ research and commercial settings and produced more than 150 peer-reviewed abstracts and publications. 

As I reflect on what this milestone means to me, I’m struck by what an extraordinary journey we’ve had, and how far we’ve yet to go. It has been a privilege to watch Propeller grow, and our future is bright if increasingly complex. We’re (re)imagining the next 13+ years with a focus on collaborating across our complex health ecosystem to create a better future where everyone can breathe better – literally and figuratively. We see a future where we: 

  • Democratize access, affordability, and availability of quality care, by learning patients’ motivations and attitudes and surrounding them with AI-assisted human touch to help them take control of their lives and commit to sustainable behavior change.
  • Treat patients’ whole health by applying our deep understanding of comorbidities to expand our Digital Therapeutic Platform to other conditions, making it the evidence-based standard of care for physicians. For example, 81% of COPD patients and 41% of asthma patients have hypertension; 40% and 30% respectively have depression – but if they can’t breathe, not much else matters.
  • Close the gap in health disparities among underserved populations by challenging conventional wisdom and factoring socioeconomic status along with social and cultural determinants of health to deliver equity by design across every aspect of our platform, communications, and care delivery

Being part of Propeller is immensely rewarding, and I speak for each Propeller team member when I say we are truly a mission-driven organization. We believe in uplifting patient lives, and we are grateful we get to come to work each day with that shared goal. 

Happy 13th birthday, Propeller. Here’s to many more years putting patients first.

— Susa Monacelli, General Manager

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