Automatic diagnosis machine at home.

[purple]

That is, how long will it be before we have available a machine which someone can get by package express, connect it up themselves, test themselves for Sleep Apnea and Titration automatically. We now have a huge bottleneck for the general public in getting into a Sleep Clinic, paying an enormous amount of money, and then finally get a machine.

I know we have APAP machines which with some parameters can get the titration closer. If someone added an Oximeter onto the machine, then how close are we to not needing the titration study.

Helping someone pick and adjust a mask without an expert being there is an issue. Brings up the question, when will someone have a machine to measure my face and create a mask especially for me.

Any predictions?

[avi123]

I know about four firms who sell or rent such portable machines.


Check this:

viewtopic/t63076/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=57 ... ng#p536285

and this:

http://www.clevemed.com/products_sleep_ ... ucts.shtml

[bearinthefield]

A number of HMOs, like Group Health, do the diagnosis at home with minimal gear through a DME. I was diagnosed by hooking myself up for one night, never went to a sleep clinic.

[physicsbob]

I was initially diagnosed by one,after I slept over at a friends' house that handled heath care services for truckers. She heard me snoring and I was sleeping in a basement apartment and they were sleeping in a second floor bedroom on the other part of the house. She brought the diagnosis machine home the next night and hooked me up to it. It reported I had a AHI of 63 and a O2 destat down to 68. When I got home I showed my Dr. the printout and he scheduled me a sleep study the next week and the rest is history. The unit I used had a chest strap, Oximeter, a wrist and a leg strap (EKG) and a nasal canula. I was a lot easier to hook up than the regular sleep study and it gave some pretty detailed reports, my Doctor was impressed with the report, but said he wanted the sleep study for verification.
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[Janknitz]

Kaiser Northern California does home testing via an older version of the Itamar Watch Pat device and then home titration with Philips Respironics Auto Pap machines. This method is approved by Medicare and other insurances as well. The machine is easy to use, unobtrusive, and not uncomfortable at all.

Personally, I think the home diagnostics makes a lot of sense for prescreened patients who are likely to have straightforward OSA. It's MUCH easier and less intimidating than having to spend a night in a lab, hooked up to wires and watched by strangers. I would NEVER have been tested that way. It's less expensive, and I think it's got to give a much more realistic picture since you are tested in your own bed, on your own schedule, and under your normal sleeping provisions.

Titration at home with an auto adjusting machine makes a lot of sense, too, for the same reasons. Kaiser requires you to attend TWO patient education classes (one for testing, one for titration) as part of this process, and lots of follow-up support for beginning therapy.

I would never have agreed to testing if in lab testing was required, so I'm very grateful that this was the method available.

[vikash12]

In Louisiana, there are special procedures which must be followed in medical malpractice cases. For example, in Louisiana, a claim must be filed with the State before a lawsuit can be filed. This claim is then reviewed by a panel of three Louisiana doctors, who give an opinion about whether any health care provider committed malpractice.Only after the panel has reached its decision can a lawsuit be filed. There are many complicated details to this Louisiana panel procedure, and many traps for the inexperienced Louisiana attorney