Sleephead vs. what doc sees

[Dogjudge]

I've got an appointment with my doc on the 16th of March. This is the 6 month follow up.

Things are still horrible. i.e. Last night I got about 3 - 4 hours of sleep. Asleep for an hour, up for 2.

Okay, so I'm anal about things. In addition to Sleepyhead information I have, I also compiled an Excel spread sheet so I could easily look at some of the different parameters at one time to determine if there was a pattern going on. Two of the things that I specifically wanted to keep track of were how many times a night I would wake up, and an overall rating of what I felt the quality of the sleep that I got was.

So. With Sleepyhead, I was thinking about printing out the previous month's information to take with me.

Is this comparable to what my doctor sees when they download the information from the card?

[Wulfman...]

I've got an appointment with my doc on the 16th of March. This is the 6 month follow up.

Things are still horrible. i.e. Last night I got about 3 - 4 hours of sleep. Asleep for an hour, up for 2.

Okay, so I'm anal about things. In addition to Sleepyhead information I have, I also compiled an Excel spread sheet so I could easily look at some of the different parameters at one time to determine if there was a pattern going on. Two of the things that I specifically wanted to keep track of were how many times a night I would wake up, and an overall rating of what I felt the quality of the sleep that I got was.

So. With Sleepyhead, I was thinking about printing out the previous month's information to take with me.

Is this comparable to what my doctor sees when they download the information from the card?

Depends on the doctor.......
Does/will your doctor ACTUALLY download your data (especially the nightly DETAILS)?
Most downloads are performed by the DMEs and then it is (usually) ONLY the "hours of use". It's for their billing purposes to your insurance provider. They want to make sure you're using the equipment so they can get paid.
Most of them (doctors or DMEs) could care less about your details. AND, only the last 6 or 7 nights of full details are available to download from the card.

I wouldn't get my hopes up if I were you.


Den

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[RuthArt]

lol, I also keep track of things on a spread sheet...it's very helpful to me. I take it and some of my
Encore Basics details for my Sleep Person to see, but lately my readings have been disturbing to me.
My sleep person said I didn't have to worry about my AHI as long as it was under 5....and it is. But
I've been as low as .2 or .5 and want to see that more often, not 4.6! And since I had my upper
pressure set to 8 (low pressure set to 5, she wouldn't let me go up, thought we might miss something
at 6), I've been having more CA and H. So I'm not sure she is caring how I feel about this. I'm not
seeing a Dr., just a Nurse Practitioner, which is fine. At least she did raise my limit this time and
the last time raised the lower from 4 to 5. (She also knows that I know how to get into the changing
mode of the machine, but I said I wouldn't change it without letting her know).
So I guess my answer would be take as much info as you're willing to share, let them know how you
feel about it all. Get an informed dialog going. I tell my person that I get info from the internet and
the CPAP group, so she knows I'm not just going to believe everything she says....she's not on CPAP!!

[Pugsy]

only the last 6 or 7 nights of full details are available to download from the card.

That's the way it was before the PR S1 machines but it isn't that way now. With the way the machine writes to the SD card all dates of use will offer full details if the SD card was in the machine all night. Plus these new machines will store full details (with the exception of wave form) for 30 days in its internal memory even if the SD card is never in the machine.

Encore still only shows by default the last 7 days of details but all the older dates are available by manual selection if needed.

If a machine is used for 1 year and then the SD card gets uploaded into either SleepyHead or Encore....the detailed graphs and data from the very first night will be available for viewing. Far different from they way it was when we used those smart cards.

I do agree with you though about what the doctor might want to look at...if he wants to look beyond hours of use and overall average AHI I would be very surprised...but the data (everything that went on the SD card) from day one of therapy is there if someone will take the time to look.

To Dogjudge..
your doctor won't know anything about Sleepyhead and if he uses the software it will be Encore software and the reports will look different and they don't contain all the graphs that you see on SleepyHead. Encore doesn't do all the detailed graphs like SleepyHead does. Encore does do trend graphs though.

EncoreGuide .. this will show you examples of what Encore shows. For a different machine than yours but the basics are the same. Your Encore detailed report would only show events, pressure and leak
http://www.healthcare.philips.com/pwc_h ... _Guide.pdf

[M'ohms]

I personally think it's a great idea to take all those things with you when you see the doctor. I do. It serves two purposes: 1) you are providing detailed proof to support your concerns, and 2) it lets the doctor know that you are a person not to be passed over.

The only information that my doctor copies off my SD card is the most recent wekk's summary data. If there are no problems, this should be good enough for a quick look-see. i don't pay my doctor a visit unless I have issues, however. so I that information alone isn't enough. In addition to summary data, I also print out specific nights' data from Sleepyhead that best illustrate any concerns that I have. I also provide spreadsheets. Most recently I did the same thing with overnight pulse-ox reports. He appreciates the clarity and directness of my data since he doesn't have time to parse a bunch of complaints.

Bottom line, you have a lot to gain by doing this, and not a lot to lose. Good luck!

[Wulfman...]

only the last 6 or 7 nights of full details are available to download from the card.

That's the way it was before the PR S1 machines but it isn't that way now. With the way the machine writes to the SD card all dates of use will offer full details if the SD card was in the machine all night. Plus these new machines will store full details (with the exception of wave form) for 30 days in its internal memory even if the SD card is never in the machine.

Encore still only shows by default the last 7 days of details but all the older dates are available by manual selection if needed.

If a machine is used for 1 year and then the SD card gets uploaded into either SleepyHead or Encore....the detailed graphs and data from the very first night will be available for viewing. Far different from they way it was when we used those smart cards.

I do agree with you though about what the doctor might want to look at...if he wants to look beyond hours of use and overall average AHI I would be very surprised...but the data (everything that went on the SD card) from day one of therapy is there if someone will take the time to look.

To Dogjudge..
your doctor won't know anything about Sleepyhead and if he uses the software it will be Encore software and the reports will look different and they don't contain all the graphs that you see on SleepyHead. Encore doesn't do all the detailed graphs like SleepyHead does. Encore does do trend graphs though.

EncoreGuide .. this will show you examples of what Encore shows. For a different machine than yours but the basics are the same. Your Encore detailed report would only show events, pressure and leak
http://www.healthcare.philips.com/pwc_h ... _Guide.pdf

I'll try to make mental notes of that. It's probably been stated before and depending whether I read it or not, may not have gotten "filed in the gray matter file folder".


Den

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[Krelvin]

Last Dr visit was told to bring in the card (DME never looked at the card).

Got there, assistant/nurse not sure what they are called, asked for the card, and took it in another room to "analyze it". Gave me the card in a couple minutes.

Note I had printouts of detailed data from both ResScan and SleepyHead.

Dr arrives, some chit chat... looks at his report, Notes ONLY compliance info says I am doing great. Was offered the detailed info but said really don't need that.

End of appointment.. scheduled another in a year. Most likely won't happen since I can get updated RX's if necessary from my primary doctor.

Note that I really don't have issues using my equipment and have been using CPAP for 8years. Also, the Sleep Dr himself is a CPAP users, but didn't see any point to the detail data. If he isn't having any problems.. then I guess he wouldn't bother either.

[yaconsult]

Pugsy, thank you for clarifying what the encore software does for the detailed reports. I was confused that when I looked at the detailed report, it only showed details for the last week. So you are saying that to look at any details older than that, you have to do it one day at a time?

Another encore question I had was how often the data has to be imported to encore in order for it to have all the detailed data. Once a week? Ten days? Two weeks? What if you waited a whole month? Would the entire month's detailed data still be there and uploaded? When did they change this - with which model? Does it apply to my old 550P?

SleepyHead is so much nicer - how lucky we are to have it!

[Pugsy]

So you are saying that to look at any details older than that, you have to do it one day at a time?

Encore can only show 7 detailed nights at a time. By default it always shows the most recent 7 nights but you can alter the date range and get different 7 nights if you wish. You just change the date to whatever custom date you wish.
You can do one day at a time...or you can do up to 7 detailed days ....plus you can do a summary that encompasses all data since the machine was first used but only shows the most recent 7 nights.
The default is for the last 7 days/nights but you can change both the beginning dates and the ending dates.

Another encore question I had was how often the data has to be imported to encore in order for it to have all the detailed data. Once a week? Ten days? Two weeks? What if you waited a whole month? Would the entire month's detailed data still be there and uploaded? When did they change this - with witch model? Does it apply to my old 550P?

Yes, this applies to the 50 series machines as well as 60 series and as long as the SD card isn't messed with the data from the very first night of therapy will be on that SD card. You could wait a year and still have the very first night of use available with all the detailed graphs. Once the files are on the card nothing will happen to them. The machine doesn't overwrite the SD card files like the ResMed S9 does so there is no critical need to do the download nearly as often as it is with the S9.

When buying a used PR S1 machine this means than any prior user data will also be on that card and on that machine until both are manually removed.

[archangle]

Let's all observe a moment of silence in recognition of how truly awful Encore is compared to SleepyHead or ResScan.

[strigiformes]

Let's all observe a moment of silence in recognition of how truly awful Encore is compared to SleepyHead or ResScan.

[yaconsult]

Thanks for the great info, Pugsy! It might be good stuff for a sticky at the top of the forum or in a FAQ? Now, I understand that I could do detailed reports in encore as far back as I need - I just have to do them once week at a time. Of course, the only use I could think of for such reports might be for a meeting with the doctor because he would be familiar with encore reports.

But SleepyHead is so much better! The way that you can zoom in and out and scroll and analyze is terrific! All encore does is give you a damn pdf file.