New CVS Health initiative may help COPD patients in extreme weather
Personalized advice aims to help prevent symptoms of chronic conditions
CVS Health has launched an environmental health impact initiative that aims to support patients with chronic conditions, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), for whom extreme weather events can worsen symptoms.
At its onset, the initiative is focusing mainly on extreme heat events, providing excessive heat alerts and tailored outreach to at-risk individuals. That could include, for example, providing patients with information about local cooling centers, or offering advice about how to avoid heat exhaustion to patients who have been recently hospitalized.
For now, the program is available to members of Aetna, a health insurance provider owned by CVS Health. Later, the plan is to expand to MinuteClinics and pharmacies operated by CVS.
“Extreme heat kills more Americans each year than all other weather events combined,” Dan Knecht, MD, a physician with the Mount Sinai Health System and vice president and chief clinical innovation officer for CVS Caremark, a division of CVS Health, said in a company press release.
“In addition to fatalities driven by heat strokes, extreme heat can worsen chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease, asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease,” Knecht added.
The physician also noted that most deaths related to heat “are preventable with outreach and intervention.” As such, Knecht said, CVS Health is “proud to introduce a new capability that advances our efforts to find innovative ways to deliver personalized health care to consumers.”
Very cold or very hot weather can be tough for COPD patients
COPD is a chronic inflammatory lung disease in which the airways become progressively blocked and breathing is difficult. It is usually caused by long-term exposure to cigarette smoke or other environmental factors such as dust, air pollution, or inhaled chemicals.
Environmental factors, including weather conditions, can also influence COPD symptoms and cause exacerbations, or sudden worsening of respiratory problems, that require hospitalization.
For example, when the air is very cold and dry in the winter, the airways of people with COPD and other chronic lung diseases can become more irritated, leading to more wheezing, coughing, or shortness of breath.
On the other extreme, very hot and humid weather, often accompanied by increases in smog and other types of air pollution, can worsen airway inflammation and make it harder to breathe for COPD patients. Such conditions can lead to life-threatening disease exacerbations.
With climate change, these challenges may become more prevalent. According to the U.S. Global Change Research Program’s Fifth National Climate Assessment, excessive weather events have become more common and more severe in recent years. Indeed, record-breaking heat waves have affected several regions of the U.S. already this summer.
Recommendations from both the American Lung Association and the Canadian Lung Association indicate that being proactive and prepared for these weather-related triggers is critical for people with COPD, asthma, or other lung conditions.
This may include staying indoors in areas with good air quality, keeping rescue medications readily available, avoiding strenuous activities — especially at the hottest times of day — and keeping an eye out for air quality and humidity advisories.
Initiative uses algorithm to determine patients most at risk
The CVS Health initiative intends to help make sure that medically vulnerable people have the right information and resources when weather extremes do happen.
Using advanced environmental data analytics, the program will offer real-time forecasts about air quality, wildfires, weather extremes, or other environmental factors that may pose a safety threat. It uses an algorithm to scan medical and pharmacy data to determine which patients are at highest risk.
Aetna care managers, who are registered nurses, will reach out by phone to those patients to provide personalized recommendations up to a week in advance of an extreme weather event. The recommendations are made based on several resources, including clinical guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control, according to CVS Health.
In addition to providing information on, for example, the symptoms of heat stroke, the program can help by offering at-home prescription delivery or patient transportation to cooling centers. The company notes that Oak Street Health clinics can be used for that purpose.
In the first couple of weeks since the initiative’s launch, the company now reports, hundreds of at-risk patients across more than 20 states have been connected to the program. It expects that the initiative will lead to improved health for patients with COPD and other chronic conditions, as well as less medical spending, emergency department visits, and hospital stays.
In the fall, the program will expand to those susceptible to poorer lung function, asthma, or heart problems from exposure to high air pollution.
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