Help with programming Respironics APAP

[cinnabar]

Hello, all. I'm a relatively new APAP user now armed with all the prerequisite software and hardware necessary to manage my "glorified leaf blower." (I love that description! Wish I could recall which of you coined it.) I have used the system for a couple of months and the collected data shows that the oft-discussed slight increase in the lower limit may indeed improve my overall score by further decreasing hypopneas.

I'd like to experiment with this process a bit, so could anyone provide an electronic copy of the Clinical Manual for my Respironics AUTO system? If so, please PM me and I will send an e-mail address via return mail. (The sleep tech doesn't want to give it to me without the doc's OK, and I don't want to go thru the hassle of getting his permission first.)

Also, do any of you Encore Pro users know if the prescription for the pressure range is written onto the Smart Card, or is it only saved in the machine's non-volatile memory? If it's controlled by the Smart Card, I cannot see an option in Encore Pro to download it for editing, but I do see an option to create a new prescription from "scratch." (Not ready to try that yet, since I have such limited documentation on the software.) If the current prescription is available and editable in Encore Pro, please advise how to do it.

Great discussion group you have here. Thanks in advance for your help.

[Guest]

It's "...saved in the machine's non-volatile memory" with setup programming.

[rested gal]

Hi cinnabar,

You have the tools now!

When I'm looking at the Encore data with the "Report Viewer" and have the Smart Card sitting in the reader....if I want to make a pressure change I do this:

1. Close the "Report Viewer" window to get it out of the way.

2. Leftclick "Create prescription". Then leftclick "Device Prescription."

3. Don't change anything in the "Prescription Wizard" window. Just click "Next".

4. A question will appear: "How should this Device Change/Modification be performed?"
Select "Via Smart Card" (which is probably already bulleted.) Click "Next".

5. Pick the "Device Mode" you want and click "Next".

6. Set the pressure(s) you want.
Sidenote - I leave the "Auto off/Mask alert enabled" UNchecked. I personally don't want that turned on.

7. The "Final Screen" window comes up showing what you've selected. If it's what you want, click "Finish". If it's not what you meant to do, you can go "back" to whatever you need to correct.

When you click Finish, the Encore program will write the changes to the Smart Card. It won't tell you it's doing anything, it simply does it. After a brief pause while it's doing that, the usual Encore Screen is there again, as if nothing had happened.

When you put the Smart Card back into your machine, the changes you made (including any new pressure settings you made) will be done to the machine, either right then when you insert the card, or when you turn the machine on for treatment. I'm not sure which "time" the change happens, but it definitely will use the new settings when you start your treatment that night.

Unfortunately there's nowhere in Encore Pro's "Create Prescription" to set the level of C-Flex you want. If you're using the machine with C-Flex enabled, you have to set the C-Flex 1, 2, or 3 settings by button pushing and looking at the machine's display window. The only thing you can do about C-Flex via Prescription is to turn C-Flex on or off by selecting which mode (with or without C-Flex) you want when the "Device Mode" window is up.

[cinnabar]

Rested Gal, u da (wo)Man!

Thanks for the quick, comprehensive response. I will give this procedure a try.

Now, if I could just get hold of a copy of the Clinical Manual, my documentation requirements will be complete.

[cinnabar]

Forgot to ask: Will downloading a new prescription to the SmartCard erase the sleep history data it contains? If so, is there a way to avoid it?

If not, I'll back up my latest Encore database first so I don't lose any of the records generated using the current prescription.

Thanks again.

[rested gal]

Will downloading a new prescription to the SmartCard erase the sleep history data it contains?

Nope, "Create Prescription" won't change or erase anything about the sleep history data on the card.

You do know, I suppose, that each time you download data from the Smart Card to your computer, it does erase the sleep data from the card. That's normal and has nothing to do with whether you've created a new prescription (changed the pressures) or not.

It suits me fine that the default is each download of overnight data erases the info so the card can start fresh again. No one but me will ever be looking at the Smart Card data, anyway, so I don't need it to be saving stuff on the Smart Card for anyone else to download and look at later.

However, if you know your DME will want to download the info off your Smart Card someday (doubtful they'll ever want to bother with doing that) you'd want to run (by doubleclicking) the little utilities program called:

"Don't erase data after download.reg"

Unusually descriptive name for a file, isn't it? LOL!!

You can find that in:
C:\Program Files\Respironics\Encore Pro\Utilities

I never ran that "Don't erase" thingy. The last thing in the world I want is to sit waiting and waiting while the Smart Card unloads old data I've already seen. Especially since all but the last five nights or so would be only the useless (to me) "Summary" reports instead of the detailed graphs and charts. So, I like getting just last night's data off the Smart Card each morning and letting it erase from the Smart Card what it just finished downloading to my computer.

The downloads are stored in the computer within the Encore progam's patient file. Plus, I save each of the overnight reports as a PDF file in a separate directory.

You've probably already seen this, cinnabar, but for others...very detailed info about how Encore Pro works is here:

Derek's review of Encore Pro

[derek]

Hey RG,
I believe that creating a prescription has erased the sleep data every time on my card. I always use the spare card for that reason... Maybe I'm wrong.

Cinnibar,
Here's a link to a document that you might find useful

A very useful document

[cinnabar]

Derek: Right you are! That document is EXACTLY what I needed. Since there appears to be some question about loss of data upon SmartCard reprogramming, I will research it in more detail and report back what I learn.

RG: I did indeed already know about the "DO NOT ERASE" option, thanks to Derek's excellent Respironics AUTO tutorial. (In fact, that tutorial inspired me to do battle with my CPAP provider in order to get my own AUTO system.) But I appreciate you pointing it out in any case. I do need to retain my data for later download by my sleep tech, so that feature is important.

Thought of yet another question while we're chatting: I'm one of those users who runs the system "open mask" for 10 or 15 minutes after waking each morning to dry it out. But this pollutes my recorded leak data with bogus info and biases my leak statistics as a result. Any reason I can't just unplug the SmartCard prior to doing this each morning? If that's OK to do, I assume it would solve my problem. Please advise.

[frostman]

Isn't it just as easy to make the adjustments manually by following the technical manual, or am I missing something

[cinnabar]

Yep, doing it manually would work just as well. But until today, I did not know how to do that. Since I had the Encore Pro software availalbe, this seemed like an opportunity to learn how to change the pressure range while learning more about the capabilities of my new software at the same time.

Why do it the easy way when you can make it more complicated instead, right?

[Sleepless on LI]

Cinnabar,
Yes, creating a new prescription did erase my data. I was surprised. I had all the prior saved downloaded info on the program, but not on the card anymore. If you want to save it on the card, don't use the "Create Prescription" option in the software. Just a warning.

[rested gal]

Derek, thanks VERY much for correcting my mistake! And a pretty bad mistake it was, if someone needs to be sure their sleep data is intact on the card.

I'm really sorry about that, cinnabar! Sounds like you saw Derek's advice before you wiped it clean! Thank goodness!

Looking back on it, the many times I've used "create prescription", it's been after I did the download. Looking at the data for the past night would sometimes make me think, "Well, let's see...I think I'll raise the lower pressure another notch."

Also, I've always wanted the card to be erased after downloading, so would never notice that what wasn't there any more had disappeared after I created a prescription.

Thanks again and again, Derek for setting my misinformation straight!! I really appreciate your catching that so quickly.