Episode 32: Kevin Houlihan from Propeller Health on Tuning up the Care for COPD and Asthma Patients
February 17, 201537:51

Episode 32: Kevin Houlihan from Propeller Health on Tuning up the Care for COPD and Asthma Patients

Kevin Houlihan is the Director of Client Experience at Propeller Health, a Madison, Wisconsin based respiratory health management technology company. Propeller Health has an FDA cleared platform for passive collection of information related to inhaled medications use paired with software interfaces and analytics.

Prior to joining Propeller Health Kevin spent time bringing productivity to mobile tools in the configured building products software space. Kevin also spent several years at Dassault Systemes Solidworks focused on 3D mechanical design software.

Kevin earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and an M.B.A. also from UW Madison. Kevin enjoys downhill skiing and has been active in competitive racing and coaching for many years.

You can find out more about Propeller Health at https://propellerhealth.com, and connect via email at hello@propellerhealth.com.

You can follow Propeller Health on Twitter @PropellerHealth and on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/PropellerHealth.

You can follow Kevin on twitter @Houlihan_Kevin


00:00 Kevin talks the origin of Propeller Health.
2:35 Where Propeller Health is today.
3:45 How Kevin wound up at Propeller Health.
5:00 How prevalent asthma and COPD are, yet remain two of the most overlooked and thus most expensive chronic diseases within healthcare.
7:15 “If we’re not helping patients understand how to use their medication, that’s a huge roadblock to patient outcomes.”
8:25 “People start down this path, and it gets worse and worse and worse, and they just learn to live with that.”
9:30 What the target of evidence-based medicine is for asthma.
10:20 The types of medication used to treat asthma or COPD
11:10 How Propeller can track patient medication use, and the goal Propeller Health shoots for using this data.
13:00 “The most expensive care is the kind that’s given at the wrong time.”
14:45 The lack of tools that Care Teams need to treat the right problems, and the issue of patients who don’t track their progress because it’s too time consuming.
17:11 How the Propeller Health App can track, remind, interact, and connect patients and their family members and providers.
18:30 The meta-data that the Propeller Health App tracks along with user data, in order to see a bigger picture and improve patient quality of life.
20:20 Propeller Health is also able to use this data to find correlations between environment and broad increases in asthma triggers.
22:10 How Propeller Health App reminders work.
24:55 “The goal for us is to stay quiet until we have some significant insight to give you that you can do something with.”
25:23 “The goal is to reduce the burden of managing and having your asthma or COPD.”
31:00 Who hires Propeller Health.
35:00 What Kevin thinks one critical success factor is for improving patient outcomes.
38:00 Check out propellerhealth.com for more information and to reach Kevin.

healthcare,health,patient,Asthma,adherence,copd,mobile,propeller health,
|

Episode Support Provided By

Special Thanks to Our 2026 Sustaining Monthly Donors

Kimberly Carleson, Dylan Yahn, Benjamin Light, Matt McQuideAnn Kempski, Spencer Allen, Scott TromanhauserMarilyn Bartlett, 
Steven Elkins, Matthew Bunte, and Lori Smith.

Recent Episodes

EP508: Why Don't More Self-insured CEOs Take Bold Action in Health Benefits Strategy? With Lee Lewis
Relentless Health ValueApril 23, 2026
508
44:0240.31 MB

EP508: Why Don't More Self-insured CEOs Take Bold Action in Health Benefits Strategy? With Lee Lewis

Listen on Your Favorite App This episode is the very first episode that we have done that is an AMA—an Ask Me Anything—and here is our very first question. Sarah Monroe: Hi. This is Sarah Monroe in Chicago, and I'm a benefits procurement leader. And I'm curious why you think so few executives take p...

EP507: 4 Core Concepts to Buy or Deliver the Highest-Value Healthcare—A Review
Relentless Health ValueApril 16, 2026
507
33:5831.09 MB

EP507: 4 Core Concepts to Buy or Deliver the Highest-Value Healthcare—A Review

Listen on Your Favorite App Look, we wonks, meaning you and me, you're listening to this, so I am on to you. But we wonks in the Relentless Tribe, we move like lightning on Relentless Health Value. We tend to cover lots of ground pretty fast. So, sometimes I like to, with great intention, sum up wha...

EP506: How Other Employers, Shareholders, and Clinics Are Using Price Transparency Data—And It's an Arms Race, With Jerry DiMaso
Relentless Health ValueApril 09, 2026
506
35:5132.81 MB

EP506: How Other Employers, Shareholders, and Clinics Are Using Price Transparency Data—And It's an Arms Race, With Jerry DiMaso

Listen on Your Favorite App, So, we have a few miniseries afoot here on Relentless Health Value right now, and one of them is "The Inches That Are All Around Us"—finding the hidden fees, the hidden friction for plans and members and clinics themselves a lot of times in those inches. For a full trans...

EP505: The Death of the "What Is Value" Guessing Game for Clinical and Plan Decision-Makers Ready to Move On, With Ahilan Sivaganesan, MD
Relentless Health ValueApril 02, 2026
505
44:0240.31 MB

EP505: The Death of the "What Is Value" Guessing Game for Clinical and Plan Decision-Makers Ready to Move On, With Ahilan Sivaganesan, MD

Listen On Your Favorite App Hello, Relentless Tribe. Thank you so much for showing up today. All right … to start, let me lay out the goal of the episode today. This episode is for you if you are a self-funded employer looking to ensure your members are steered and tiered to real high-value care and...

EP504: A Back-to-Basics Roadmap Through the Perverse Incentives to Advanced Primary Care, With Ryan Jacobs
Relentless Health ValueMarch 26, 2026
504
33:3630.76 MB

EP504: A Back-to-Basics Roadmap Through the Perverse Incentives to Advanced Primary Care, With Ryan Jacobs

Listen On Your Favorite App It's been a while since we started from the beginning, so let's just take stock of the basics in this show, refresh ourselves if you're a longtime listener, or welcome if you're new around here. Today we are digging on and about what I would call the poster child for prov...

INBW46: Relentless Tribe Goings-On With Insights to Outwit the Hot Mess of the Non-Healthcare Market
Relentless Health ValueMarch 19, 202619:3717.96 MB

INBW46: Relentless Tribe Goings-On With Insights to Outwit the Hot Mess of the Non-Healthcare Market

Listen On Your Favorite App This inbetweenisode I wanna try something new for two reasons. One of them is that I need to check this episode off my to-do list because I am crushed for time. I'm going to be headed to Arizona tomorrow for the Collective Health Conference , which will have occurred thre...

EP503: Let's Go From Lazy PPO Networks to Smart Collaboration With Direct-to-Employer Specialty Care, With Ryan Wells; Leo Spector, MD, MBA; and Adam Stavisky
Relentless Health ValueMarch 12, 2026
503
46:1642.35 MB

EP503: Let's Go From Lazy PPO Networks to Smart Collaboration With Direct-to-Employer Specialty Care, With Ryan Wells; Leo Spector, MD, MBA; and Adam Stavisky

Listen On Your Favorite App Today we are digging into something I've said probably way too often: Collaboration is the next breakthrough innovation. And I'm doubling down on this because in the current healthcare landscape, two parties that actually should be talking—like burning up the phone wires ...

Listen and Follow

Sponsored by Aventria Health Group
©2026 BD Bridges LLC. All Rights Reserved.