When helping patients manage a chronic illness like Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), the best way to keep symptoms at bay is to work with them to devise an effective care plan of tasks and medicines.

Sounds simple, right?

It is when they are in your office for a face-to-face consultation or check-up.  But once a patient leaves, good intentions often walk right out the door with them.  The key is connecting patients to their care between appointments.

According to the American Lung Association, COPD strikes some 11 million individuals and is the third leading cause of death among Americans. Despite these staggering statistics, COPD is easily manageable if diagnosed in its early stages and with the proper tools.

Ellie was designed with long term chronic disease management in mind.  Not only does it allow patients to track symptoms and adhere to protocol between visits, it promotes communication between care managers and patients thus staving off a health crisis.

Through Ellie, practitioners can devise an individual care plan for COPD patients and monitor it remotely. Patients can enter data manually or upload from connected and non-connected devices. Important triggers and symptoms like breathlessness and excess mucus can be logged revealing patterns and alerting practitioners to out of range levels when necessary.

Medication compliance is also a vital piece of the COPD puzzle. Ellie features the ability to set reminders and tasks related to medications. This allows patients to stay on top of medications but also gives the provider the ability to see a patient’s compliance to the medication regimen. Recommendations can also be used to remind patients about vital activities that they need to be completed in order to stay healthy. As an example, COPD patients are more susceptible to colds and the flu so a recommendation and a task around getting a flu shot on time is vital to their care.

Many of the symptoms of COPD can vary by day or be exacerbated with activity or environment. Ellie’s health journals help capture these diverse symptoms and give care managers a clearer picture of the daily life of a COPD patient.

Although there is no cure for COPD, Ellie can help care managers not only extend the life expectancy of sufferers but make them more comfortable and productive in their day to day lives.