Monitoring improves sleep apnea device compliance: Kaiser study

A study from Kaiser Permanente found that remote monitoring and automated coaching using ResMed can significantly improve continuous positive airway pressure therapy compliance for patients suffering from obstructive sleep apnea. The findings were recently presented at the SLEEP conference in Denver.

More than 1,400 people on CPAP therapy took part in the study. Out of that randomized selection, 556 were prescribed AirSense 10 CPAP machines that featured built-in cellular communications. Breaking that group down even more, 129 were placed in a typical care arm, 164 into the telehealth education arm, 125 into CPAP monitoring through U-Sleep and the final 138 into a telehealth education and CPAP monitoring arm.

Those who used U-Sleep support achieved Medicare-defined CPAP adherence 21% more than the average study participant over 90 days. Even more, those working with web-based education alone did not see a "statistically significant impact" on CPAP usage over three months.

"Anything that significantly increases CPAP use in the first 90 days is a big deal," said Dr. Dennis Hwang, a sleep specialist at Kaiser Permanente's Fontana Medical Center and the study's principal investigator. "That initial period is crucial for patients to embrace CPAP to treat their sleep apnea, which is linked to heart failure, atrial fibrillation, type 2 diabetes and other serious conditions. Tools like U-Sleep hold a lot of promise for patients on CPAP and the clinicians who treat them."

U-Sleep is a digital platform that helps healthcare providers monitor and manage CPAP compliance. The tech brings together all the CPAP data that was sent to ResMed's AirView patient management system. U-Sleep's rules engine analyzes the data which are sent to a patient's healthcare provider. From there, the data can help care teams set CPAP program rules, which aim to aid in payor reimbursement and improve patient outcomes.

U-Sleep also helps healthcare providers keep an eye on patient CPAP compliance. Patients who are compliant for specific durations of time will receive encouraging and congratulatory messages in email or via text.

U-Sleep helps coach patients as well, sending messages to patients based on those pre-defined rules, either via email, phone or text.

Healthcare providers can also use the Action View feature to sort patients into specific groups, so you can focus on a specific action or element and on specific tasks like patient follow-up calls.

- here is the press release
- check out the U-Sleep site