BlowingWithTheWind wrote:robysue wrote:
Because the manufacturers are pushing cloud software and automated downloads of (primarily) compliance data, it is not a farfetched idea that once most DMEs have decided to use the cloud software and modems, that in a future generation of machines, the manufacturers will decide to make the modem the standard piece of equipment and create an "optional SD card module" to slap on the back of the machine for patients who live in a remote area with unreliable cellular networks.
And cracking into "securely transmitted wireless data" is a whole different kettle of fish than staring at unencrypted files on an SD card that can be looked at with the appropriate hex editor.
I would make the case that the data generated from your CPAP is yours. You may be required to share it with the insurance company for payment but under HIPAA regulations, you have the right to request it. Now, the timeliness of receiving the data may be another thing all together.
I would agree with you about the data generated by my machine being mine, but hacking into a secure data transmission process for which I am NOT an authorized user is still likely going to be frowned on from a legal point of view.
Right now both Resmed and PR believe they have granted patients sufficient access to their cpap data through the (braindead) web apps
SleepSeeker (Resmed) and
SleepMapper (PR). Both of these web apps provide basic
summary efficacy data: Overnight AHI that is NOT broken down as far as OAI, CAI, and HI. And very limited leak data. And the ever present usage data.
And yes, the DMEs and sleep docs will be happy to process HIPAA requests for the more detailed data because they can charge you for it. But how practical will it be to tell a DME that you want the detailed data graphs for
every day and you want them in real time---i.e. you want July 30's data available to you on July 31? My guess is that they'll laugh in your face and tell you they'll be happy to charge you for a printout of the data for a one week period and that they can either snail mail it to you (so you might get it next week) or that you can drive out of your way to pick it up that after noon.
Finally:
Here's a screen shot of the typical "detailed" SleepSeeker report:
Note the fact that there's no way to tease apart the OAI and the CAI from this data. And God and Resmed only know whether that "leak" data is the 95% leak level (which I suspect it is) or the average leak level or the median leak level. Inadequately labeled leak numbers are not very useful.
And here are some screen shots the way SleepMapper shows the data:
Home screen after logging in with "long term usage data":
Note how there is no numerical scale on this graph. Which means the graph is next to useless from a mathematical point of view.
Clicking "Therapy" gives a tool tip with numerical info on the bar graph:
Here's the Mask Fit data:
Again, there's no numerical scale on the graph. And you'll notice that there's no explanation of what "Mask Fit" means; as near as I can tell, Mask Fit is simply the percent of time when there is NOT an official PR Large Leak. Again, if you click on any one of the days, you get a tool tip with the numbers for that particular bar.
Here's the AHI data:
Yet again, there's no numerical scale. Clicking on an individual day brings up a tool tip with some numerical information, but that numerical AHI is not broken down by types of events.:
I'll end by saying this: I am very worried that the brave new world of wireless data transmission by modem will eventually lead manufacturers to NOT include SD card slots as the default mechanism for recording CPAP data. I believe that SD card modules will become an add-on device only available to patients using PAP machines in remote areas with poor cellular service. I also believe that once the default set up is a wireless modem instead of an SD card, that it will become very difficult, if not impossible, for us mere patients to get our hands on the kind of detailed data we currently have when we pop our SD card into the computer and import the data into SleepyHead, EncoreBasic, or ResScan.