What's the deal with software?

[Chappy]

I'm on my 5th night. My sleep center or DME never mentioned anything about software. It wasn't offered as part of what was needed. What is it for and why would one want it?

[RiverDave]

Chappy,

You weren't offered the software because the manufacturers don't want you to have it. There has been a big push by ResMed and Respironics to halt the sales of the software to end users and keep it in DME and MD hands only.

What it does:
1) allows you to keep electronic data from your treatment
2) provides detailed data (logs pressure, leak, apneas and hypopneas every minute)
3) provides summary statistics for each night of sleep (pressure, leak, AHI, duration, compliance, etc.

Whether or not you want it depends on how much detail you want to know about your treatment. Note: it is not necessary to have the software to monitor your progress, but if you are a data nerd like me, it's pretty cool to have.

Good Luck,

[goose]

What RiverDave said.........

Valuable tool for a geek on the hose....Hard to come by, but available if you realllllly look around.

cheers
goose

[Slinky]

Chappy, you have one heck of a good xPAP with that Resmed S8 AutoSet Vantage. I have one too, as well as a Resmed S8 Elite which is a straight CPAP w/EPR. Your integrated humidifier is the Humidaire 3i if you want to include its icon in your sig as well.

You might find it interesting to check some of your data via the LED screen on your Vantage. These xPAPs have an internal, 24 hour, noon to noon, clock so you have to check your nightly data before noon or it is rolled over into the averages.

Just press the Left and Right buttons and hold them for 3-4 seconds. You will see Efficacy Data come up on your LED screen. From then on its pretty much self-explanatory: press the Left button to Enter, the Down button to go to the next data, the Up bottom to return to the previous data and the Right button to Exit. You can't change any of your settings in these menus so don't worry about upsetting your therapy at all.

What you will find in the Efficacy Menu is your 95th percentile of pressure, your 95th percentile of leaks, your AHI, AI and HI for that night, and as you've used your Vantage long enough the weekly, monthly, six months and yearly averages of that data as well. And the Usage data: hours used, nights used, number of nights since you started therapy whether you used the Vantage or not.