Medtrade will be the first major U.S. industry conference where ResMed has the opportunity to showcase its entire Air Solutions platform, and its benefits, to HME providers. “Specifically, we’ll demonstrate how ResMed Air Solutions devices and software solutions maximize access to patient therapy data in a connected care ecosystem to streamline patient management and improve patient compliance,” says Jon Yerbury, vice president, Marketing, ResMed-Americas.

Among the ResMed Air Solutions software solutions is the AirViewTM monitoring and compliance management system, which streamlines the patient management process by enabling patient data on demand, and available just one hour after a device’s last use.

“ResMed Air Solutions are wirelessly enabled to offer telemonitoring on devices the HME chooses to connect into AirView,” explains Yerbury, who will set up shop at Booth #1317 during Medtrade, scheduled for Oct 20-23, 2014, at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta. “Low-cost plans for troubleshooting, usage and detailed data save HMEs time and money. Being able to seamlessly monitor patients’ compliance in the cloud is a huge benefit for HMEs because it eliminates steps and paves a faster, smoother road to reimbursement.”

The ResMed Air Solutions platform has data-driven components that span from diagnosis to treatment, compliance management and patient engagement. “With Air Solutions, we’re creating a new beginning in patient care,” says Don

Darkin, president of the ResMed Sleep-Disordered Breathing Business Unit. “As we unveil each Air Solutions component, our signature differentiation of superior performance and comfort will be underscored, made even stronger with groundbreaking technology that helps providers become more connected with their patients.”

The post ResMed to Debut Air Solutions at Medtrade appeared first on Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy.

SleepDT

More Posts

A new study honed in on the elderly population published findings that CPAP therapy is effective in this older age group. Previous studies have established the benefits of CPAP in middle-aged people with OSA, but until now there has been no research on whether the treatment is useful and cost-effective for older patients.

The new research titled found that CPAP reduces how sleepy patients feel in the daytime and reduces health care costs. Researchers say CPAP should be offered routinely to older patients with OSA, and more should be done to raise awareness of the condition.

The study, published in Lancet Respiratory Medicine, titled “Continuous positive airway pressure in older people with obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (PREDICT): a 12-month, multicentre, randomised trial”  involved 278 patients aged 65 or over at 14 NHS centers in the UK. It was led by researchers at Imperial College London and the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh in collaboration with the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit at UCL, and the Universities of Oxford and York. It was funded by the National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment (NIHR HTA) Programme.

Around 20% of the adult population experiences breathing problems during sleep. In 4%-5% of middle-aged people, these problems lead to sleepiness in the daytime, classified as obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. The condition is thought to be more common in older people, but the true prevalence is unknown, in part because patients and their relatives may attribute their sleepiness to old age, or older people can compensate by napping. The disease is becoming more common because obesity is a major risk factor.

Professor Mary Morrell, co-principal investigator of the study from the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College London, said: “Sleep apnea can be hugely damaging to patients’ quality of life and increase their risk of road accidents, heart disease and other conditions. Lots of older people might benefit from this treatment. Many patients feel rejuvenated after using CPAP because they’re able to sleep much better and it may even improve their brain function.”

Click Here to Read Full Article

The post Sleep Apnea Treatment is Effective for Older People appeared first on Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy.

SleepDT

More Posts

The post Insomnia’s Effect on Middle Age Mortality appeared first on Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy.

SleepDT

More Posts

A Stanford University School of Medicine study suggests that “sleep drunkenness” may affect one in every seven people. As reported via the American Academy of Neurology, sleep drunkenness occurs when, during or following arousals from sleep, people are confused or perform inappropriate behavior, such as answering the phone instead of turning off the alarm.

According to the article titled “Are confusional arousals pathological?“, the episodes occur either during the first part of the night or in the morning. An episode, often triggered by a forced awakening, may even cause violent behavior during sleep or amnesia of the episode. “These episodes of waking up confused have received considerably less attention than sleepwalking even though the consequences can be just as serious,” said study author Maurice M. Ohayon, M.D., D.Sc., Ph.D., with Stanford University School of Medicine.

“For the study, 19,136 people age 18 and older from the general U.S. population were interviewed about their sleep habits and whether they had experienced any symptoms of the disorder,” writes Nauert. “Participants were also asked about mental illness diagnoses and any medications they took. The study found that 15 percent of the group had experienced an episode in the last year, with more than half reporting more than one episode per week.”

Among those who had an episode, 37.4% reportedly also had a mental disorder. People with depression, bipolar disorder, alcoholism, panic or post-traumatic stress disorder, and anxiety were more likely to experience sleep drunkenness.

Click Here for Abstract

The post Grogginess or Sleep Drunkenness? appeared first on Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy.

SleepDT

More Posts

The fundamental question of what is the best time to go to bed has long been a conundrum and opinions vary wildly. Does “early to bed, early to rise” truly make you healthy, wealthy, and wise?

Time writer Markham Heid relies on Dr. Matt Walker, head of the Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab at the University of California, Berkeley who reveals; “The time of night when you sleep makes a significant difference in terms of the structure and quality of your sleep.”

Walker says sleep quality does change as the night wears on. “The time of night when you sleep makes a significant difference in terms of the structure and quality of your sleep,” he explains in the Time article. “The ratio of non- REM to REM sleep changes.”

“What does this have to do with the perfect bedtime?” asks Heid. “The shift from non-REM to REM sleep happens at certain times of the night regardless of when you go to bed, Walker says. So if you hit the sack very late—at, say, 3 AM—your sleep will tilt toward lighter, REM-heavy sleep. And that reduction in deep, restorative sleep may leave you groggy and blunt-minded the next day.”

Dr. Allison Siebern, associate director of the Insomnia & Behavioral Sleep Medicine Program at Stanford University, adds that “For people who are night owls, going to bed very early goes against their physiology, and the same is true for “morning larks” who try to stay up late. For either type of person—as well as for the vast majority of sleepers who fall somewhere in between—the best bedtime is the hour of the evening when they feel most sleepy

The post Time Magazine Tackles “Best Time to Go to Sleep” appeared first on Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy.

SleepDT

More Posts

An administrative law judge at the International Trade Commission (ITC) ruled in favor of ResMed (NYSE: RMD) in its patent infringement case against Chinese medical device manufacturer BMC Medical Co., Ltd.

ITC Judge Thomas Pender found that each of nine BMC products named in the action infringes one or more ResMed patents, and as a result, recommended that the ITC ban BMC and its U.S. distributor, 3B Medical, from importing or selling any of the infringing BMC products in the United States.

Judge Pender also recommended a cease and desist order that would enjoin BMC and 3B from selling, advertising, marketing, storing or testing the infringing products in the United States.

“The judge’s decision is not just a victory for ResMed and the product innovation that is core to our brand, but it’s also a win for patients who deserve high quality, comfortable care,” said David Pendarvis, ResMed’s chief administrative officer and global general counsel. “We will continue innovating and continue protecting our intellectual property anywhere we identify infringement.”

Read Full Press Release Here

The post ResMed Wins Initial Decision in ITC Patent Infringement Action against BMC Medical appeared first on Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy.

SleepDT

More Posts

According to a report, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is recommending later start times for schools to combat teen sleep deprivation. The article by Deborah Netburn (reprinted in the Portland Press Herald) declared that the AAP believes chronic sleepiness to be a public health issue in a policy statement Monday.

To help fix the problem, the organization called for middle and high schools to push back start times 30 minutes to an hour to allow students to get more rest.

“A substantial body of research has now demonstrated that delaying school start times is an effective countermeasure to chronic sleep loss,” the organization said. “The American Academy of Pediatrics strongly supports the efforts of school districts to optimize sleep in students.”

Sleep deprivation in teenagers is widespread. Eighty-seven percent of high school students in the U.S. are getting less than the recommended 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep, and high school seniors get less than 7 hours of sleep a night, on average, the AAP says.

“In addition, 28 percent of high school students report falling asleep at school at least once a week, while 1 in 5 say they fall asleep doing homework with similar frequency,” writes Netburn. “The exhaustion has serious consequences. The AAP reports that the average teenager in the U.S. regularly experiences levels of sleepiness similar to people with sleep disorders such as narcolepsy.”

As of the 2011-12 school year, 43 percent of U.S. public high schools had a start time before 8 a.m.

“When high school classes begin early in the morning, we ask teens to shine when their biological clock tells them to sleep,” said Timothy Morgenthaler, president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Source: AAP

The post Teen Sleep Deprivation Called Epidemic appeared first on Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy.

SleepDT

More Posts

Shift workers use over-the-counter and prescription drugs to stay awake or fall asleep, but researchers say the evidence behind those practices is weak.

Commenting on the study titled “Pharmacological interventions for sleepiness and sleep disturbances caused by shift work“, Dr. David Neubauer, associate director of the Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders Center in Baltimore, Maryland, revealed that use of these drugs for this purpose “has been studied to a very limited extent and the studies that have been published mostly have not been of sufficient quality to allow firm conclusions. Considering the large number of people who do shift work, it certainly is unfortunate that minimal research has been performed to offer clinical guidance to address the problems of inadequate alertness or sleepiness.”

Dr. Juha Liira of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Helsinki and colleagues reportedly gathered data from 15 trials involving 718 participants. The trials evaluated the effect of melatonin and hypnotic drugs on sleep after the shift, and the effect of modafinil, armodafinil and caffeine plus naps on sleepiness during the shift.

“They found that taking a nap and caffeine before a night shift may improve alertness, and daytime melatonin may add around 24 minutes of extra sleep during daylight hours, but the evidence is weak,”. “For some workers, modafinil improves alertness at work but carries the risk of side effects like headache and nausea, and rarely a serious skin rash syndrome.”

In general, the authors cautioned, “The evidence was of low quality and mostly from small trials. Both sleep and alertness promoting agents have potentially serious adverse effects. Therefore, we need more trials to determine the beneficial and harmful effects of these drugs.”

Click Here for Abstract

The post Use of Pharmaceuticals by Shift Workers Needs More Research appeared first on Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy.

SleepDT

More Posts

Shift workers use over-the-counter and prescription drugs to stay awake or fall asleep, but researchers say the evidence behind those practices is weak.

Commenting on the study titled “Pharmacological interventions for sleepiness and sleep disturbances caused by shift work“, Dr. David Neubauer, associate director of the Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders Center in Baltimore, Maryland, revealed that use of these drugs for this purpose “has been studied to a very limited extent and the studies that have been published mostly have not been of sufficient quality to allow firm conclusions. Considering the large number of people who do shift work, it certainly is unfortunate that minimal research has been performed to offer clinical guidance to address the problems of inadequate alertness or sleepiness.”

Dr. Juha Liira of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in Helsinki and colleagues reportedly gathered data from 15 trials involving 718 participants. The trials evaluated the effect of melatonin and hypnotic drugs on sleep after the shift, and the effect of modafinil, armodafinil and caffeine plus naps on sleepiness during the shift.

“They found that taking a nap and caffeine before a night shift may improve alertness, and daytime melatonin may add around 24 minutes of extra sleep during daylight hours, but the evidence is weak,”. “For some workers, modafinil improves alertness at work but carries the risk of side effects like headache and nausea, and rarely a serious skin rash syndrome.”

In general, the authors cautioned, “The evidence was of low quality and mostly from small trials. Both sleep and alertness promoting agents have potentially serious adverse effects. Therefore, we need more trials to determine the beneficial and harmful effects of these drugs.”

Click Here for Abstract

The post Use of Pharmaceuticals by Shift Workers Needs More Research appeared first on Sleep Diagnosis and Therapy.

SleepDT

More Posts