Respironics Firmware still Sucks!

6PtStar wrote:Pardon me Slinky but have I not been reading how the new ResMeds no longer record the pressure and the new ResScan 3.5 not being available to US customers. Are you sure ResMed is not following Respironics down the "Yellow Brick Road"!!!

Huh? Mine records pressures just fine. I have no idea what you mean by that. Resmed also sent me a free upgrade to Resscan 3.5

I've never worried about a day or two of lost data....doesn't make or break my treatment....
I see the holes on my EPA reports, but fail to lose any sleep over it....
I'm sure if the manufacturers put their minds to it there could be machines with almost unlimited storage with a USB interface instead of that lame card. With Micro HD's what they are today, 250GB?? How about 500GB?? It's doable......or how about high density semiconductor memory?? 20GB, 60GB??
I mean, after all, it's just a blower......

I usually attribute it to my own timing -- seems like I forget to pull the data every 7 days like I should. Sometimes it goes 14 to 20 days and I find when I do that, I lose data. If I pull my data every 7 days, I never seem to lose any data and I've never formatted my card -- just pull it out, read the data, tell it to retain the data, and put the card back in......

cheers
goose

Missing data? I think it's more like... "You have software with which to monitor and assess your treatment, but we have to keep you baffled in some manner." Of course, I am joking.

But it's a sad situation when such a leader in making OSA treatment machines ignores and head-in-the-sand denies that they have a major problem with formatting and delivering complete and accurate patient data to the patient and to the various medical professionals involved in a patients' care. That amounts to inexcusable carelessness, and a gapping hole in absolute dedication to product quality. Not to mention... it's shows a lack of unwavering concern for the end user/patient.

The question is... where is the line between a life-saving medical device... and a health-balancing (ultimately life-saving) medical device. To my way of thinking... XPAP's are second tier life-saving devices. They can slow patient progression toward needing top tier invasive ventilation devices used to stay alive from minute-to-minute.

Any medical device that has persistently defective external or internal parts, or firmware, or software or data conversion and handling devices... should be brought to the attention of the AMA, consumer protection agencies, insurers and anyone else with a vested interest.

With the release of Encore Viewer, a totally new software application having the same problem with missing data, I'm betting that it's the machine firmware, SmartCard module and its firmware or a combination that presents the intermittent problem.

If the data accumulation and presentation software, machine firmware or SmartCard unit is defective then the whole machine and any therapy it provides should be questioned and investigated also.

The health and lives of many hundreds of thousands of patients are at risk. As well as their peace-of-mind to trust their assisted-living device implicitly. Respironics should bite-the-bullet and resolve the problem promptly regardless of bottom-line cost(s) or stock value loss. In doing so, they would surely garner more respect and product loyalty from patients.

A class action suit is what it'll probably take to get their attention. And I'd bet, with the current air regarding defective medical devices, such a suit would make headlines that could cost them considerably more than the cost of completely resolving the missing-data problem as it exists.

Nodzy

The most likely scenario is that the limited downloads the professinals, the local DMEs and the sleep labs, aren't encountering this data loss problem due to the fact that they do that limited download from patients. And if Respironics doesn't receive complaints from the professionals .... at least for EncorePro .... what's the reason for concern??

I doubt that anyone's life depends on one or two nights of data a month being lost. And I doubt you would find a lawyer even willing to consider taking on such a lawsuit. How is anyone gonna be able to PROVE ANY serious harm or damage due to one or two nights of data a month lost? I know this is a nation of frivilous lawsuits but there has to be some harm done some how to put a financial benefit to suing and if there isn't money to be made no lawyer is gonna be bothered. JMO.

No doubt, Slinky. And most medical-types don't even care about seeing details of patient data, or the number of nights of "no data," as long as the patient expresses or demonstrates treatment benefit and tolerance of the therapy.

It just seems ludicrous that an assisted-living, medical device can exist and persist with such a problem, and it's not taken to be a neon-sign testament to lack of total caring for the patient. It causes me to also question the integrity of the treatment algorithms in the machine.

If missing-data problems exist and persist unresolved, are there other "problems" not obvious visually in these widely distributed units? If Respironics ignores a problem that manifests visually, what else would they ignore?

Nodzy
"Being one’s self may be a tough job, but trying to be someone else is an invitation for failure."

Nodzy wrote: ... And most medical-types don't even care about seeing details of patient data, or the number of nights of "no data," as long as the patient expresses or demonstrates treatment benefit and tolerance of the therapy.

You got THAT right, Nodzy!! I was just checking the ABMS certification on a sleep doc new to the area and ran across a familiar name: a Neurologist who deliberately drastically overbooks appointments, SOP is to run as much as 2 hours late for scheduled appointment times by mid-morning and I have absolutely no idea WHY as he is one of these fast talkers, talks so fast one has trouble understanding him. This guy has taken on sleep medicine now too!!!!!! What a joke! I already KNOW what kind of sleep doctor he is gonna be!!!

> And most medical-types don't even care about seeing details of patient data

No kidding. I created an Excel spreadsheet to _summarize_ the data from my card. It's got 1) all the information 2) on a daily basis and 3) it's concise.

I brought it to an appt with my PCP and he said he didn't need to see it.

I brought it to an appt with my sleep doc and he said "Doesn't the machine display this information?" Er, no, only some.

And the DME isn't interested, of course.