What softwear for Resmed Vantage auto?

Hi all,
I'm thinking about getting the necessary software for my machine. Is there just one program? Do I need anything else? Thanks.

You need both ResMed's program (which they will not sell to the general public), and a device to take the information from the card and transmit it to your computer (a 'card reader').

Both appear to be available from
http://www.thecpapshop.com./product_pag ... ctCatID=17

The software is called Res Scan and runs on Windows-based systems. Note the following disclaimer on their web site: "*Software is intended for use by Sleep Labs and DMEs. We do not provide technical support for software purchases."

Several here have commented on the lack of clarity of the Res Scan reports (but that is true of Respironics software for their machines, and to a lesser degree, Puritan Bennet's software.) It takes some practice to correctly read and interpret the reports.

Although your machine gives you more data directly available on the screen than any other machine currently available, the software will give you even more detailed reports, on an hour by hour basis, instead of nightly summaries.

Hope this helps.

Our forum sponsor also has them for the same price ...

https://www.cpap.com/simple-find-cpap-products/software

Thanks Bookbear and Dreamstalker,
How do some places get around selling it to "non professionals"?
When you say the information is difficult to interpret, how so? Is it just graphed in a strange way? Would I (with your help) be able to figure it out?
I guess I should be sure its information that I want. What I mean is, what kind of information would it help me with, in addition to the info I can already get off the machine every morning?
I tend to over-buy stuff, and just want to make sure it will really be helpful.
Thanks!

Well, you can do quite nicely w/just the data available on the LED screen.

The Resmed software provides 4 graphs: a bar graph of combined nightly usage, a bar graph of combined nightly usage by the hour, a bar graph of pressure, leak and apneas/hypopneas and the one I like best: a (squiggly line) graph of that night's pressure and leaks up and down along w/hypopneas and apneas and the time frame.

The Efficacy data you obtain via the LCD screen is not quite as complete as the software provides. Onscreen you get the pressure AT OR BELOW which you spent the night (the 95th percentile). Via software you get the 95th percentile, the average pressure and the highest pressure you encountered that night. The same for your leak rates. The software also reports what PER CENT of the night you spent in apnea.

Country4ever wrote:How do some places get around selling it to "non professionals"?

ResScan is readily available to patients in most markets except for the US. You can blame the US healthcare regulatory environment for that.

Country4ever wrote:When you say the information is difficult to interpret, how so?

If you are used to reading simple graphs, its not difficult at all! Unfortunately basic graph reading skills seems to be unevenly distributed in the general community now a days!

Country4ever wrote:Is it just graphed in a strange way?

No, its generally very straightforward.

Country4ever wrote:Would I (with your help) be able to figure it out?

Easily!

Country4ever wrote:What I mean is, what kind of information would it help me with, in addition to the info I can already get off the machine every morning?

You can see what time during your sleep that events occured, and whether there is any correlation between things like pressure, leakage events and AIs/HIs.

You can also see trends over days and weeks, and can add notes to individudal days if you are trying to track the impact of external factors, such as what you eat, something else that you do, or changing machine settings etc.

Country4ever wrote:I tend to over-buy stuff, and just want to make sure it will really be helpful.

It costs around $200 to set up for using the software, so the question is will you get that amount of benefit!?! For me.... well, I certainly did

The current version of ResScan (v 3.2) does not work with Microsoft Vista, but Vista compatible version is due for release within the next month or so.

Cheers,

Bill

Thanks Bill and Slinky.