CPAP the next generation

Tip10 wrote: Oh, and robysue -- ... Bet you sleep on the left side of the bed when facing the headboard don't you??

Give that eagle a prize somebody. Tip10, you correct I do sleep on that side of the bed. And curled away from the night stand with Kaa and into my hubby's side. I've finally found a spot to curl into hubby's side with the hose on my nose. Not as comfy as his underarm was in the pre-CPAP days, but it will do.

open source software (so I can modify it).
export data, eg to spreadsheet.

The nice thing is that, as the CPAP industry evolves, many of the desired features have already appeared on one machine or another, if not on the same machine:
--small size
--12v operation for easy use with standard battery packs
--integrated humidifier
--alarms for apnea, insufficient flow, severe mask leak
--recording of breath cycle detail
--integration of oximetric data
--easy interface to computer and software for viewing data in datail
--machines intelligent enough to titrate the user
--going beyond providing an air splint, to providing the functionality of a non-invasive respirator
--more openess, allowing the user access to machine settings and data
I like what's been happening with masks, as well--many more good choices than ten years ago. But, there is still a lot of room for improvement when it comes to preventing leaks.

Did anybody else read the title of this thread and immediately think of Patrick Stewart in a CPAP mask?

Alshain wrote:Did anybody else read the title of this thread and immediately think of Patrick Stewart in a CPAP mask?

They do it a little different in the 24th century.

archangle wrote:A flow waveform is a graph of the rate of air flow through the CPAP machine. Think of the EKG graphs you see on TV, but for CPAP.

If you have an apnea, for instance, you can look at the flow waveform and see how long it lasted. Is it a 100% air stoppage, or just a reduction in flow? Did you gasp for air at the end, or did you just slowly start breathing again? And so on.

I find flow waveforms very helpful because some events are more severe than others. Some that the machine flags as an event don't really look like anything at all. With older machines, you just get something like "You had an obstructive apnea at 2:15 AM." Or on ResMed, you may get a time duration listed. The actual flow waveform tells you a lot more about what happened.

Is that what you were asking about?

Yes, and thanks for the great explanation! I would like to see a flow waveform report!

gasp wrote:Yes, and thanks for the great explanation! I would like to see a flow waveform report!

Lots of examples on the the board. Here's one: viewtopic/t67066/What-does-UARS-look-li ... ml#p624582

With the right tool, you can zoom in and out and look at various areas.

tea and coffee maker, pot/Hashish attachment.

I'd like to see the reporting be a little smarter. Instead of simply counting the events, score them somehow. The current models give the same weight to an 11 second apnea that they do to a 120 second apnea.

We need a better number than AHI.

There could be some better sort of "took off the mask" alarm. Since a lot of people report taking off their mask and turning off the CPAP machine without being aware of it, maybe there could be an optional "take off the mask" check.

My idea would be for it to have an "alarm clock" style function. If it decides you have taken off the mask in your sleep, it waits a little while and starts beeping quietly. Then it gets louder until you put the mask back on. I know some machines have a large leak function, but the beeping is pretty quiet on mine and quits after a while. I'm thinking something more like alarm clock volume levels.

For those who turn the machine off in their sleep, maybe you could have an optional "lock" function. If you want to turn the alarm back off, you have to push some sequence of buttons that you're not likely to be able to figure out how to do in your sleep.

Of course, if you do this, you might need the machine to be more "thrown against the wall" resistant.

Off the top, proper UI - users need to quickly see pressure and humidifier status while lieing down.
They need to see settings easily to verify machine is set correctly.
Some designers have headed in a good direction by putting larger displays on an angled surface.
An example of bad UI is the Respironics classic RemStar (bread loaf- small display on top of machine).

archangle wrote: . . . Of course, if you do this, you might need the machine to be more "thrown against the wall" resistant.

Good laugh going on here! They could shape it in the form of a tank and the forward gun could be the hose hookup and the tracks keep it mobile : ) A bit difficult getting it through the airport though LOL

I would like to see better usage of the data that is being stored. For me this means more convenient. At times, I will be at work feeling tired and want to take a look at my data at that point to see if anything occurred over the night. Since I don't generally carry my CPAP machine with me, this is not an option. However, this is not an impossibility.

Eye-fi is a company that makes Wi-fi enabled SD cards. These are designed to put in a camera and then the photos get uploaded automatically to Flickr or some such site as you take them and come into wi-fi range.

If such a card were supported for CPAP, then your data could be uploaded and available via a website immediately. More over, you could send out automatic alerts when your AHI or leak rate goes to high.

I tried contacting eye-fi to get their SDK so I could see how hard it would be to program it to upload CPAP data, but didn't get a response. I still have hopes that this can be done.

And yes, I know that manufacturers have "modem" cards. They are expensive and proprietary. I think having a general solution to this problem is the way to go.

Dave.

I wish it had "leak correction" technology or at least detect where it is occuring on the mask and give input on how to adjust the straps to fix it properly. I also wish they included optional gear to use so it could more accurately tell you what kind of apnea event I am having.

I haven't been able to find a meaningful discussion on why Devilbiss didn't include flow graph data in the Smartlink software. I know that the algorithm they use monitors the last 6 readings and drops the oldest as the new reading is added. With the Smartlink interface, it wouldn't be hard for the firmware to send that data to the interface or for the interface to request the readings as they are discarded.

I really want to see the data represented like the PR system one software. I really like the tags being pasted into the flow graph at the point of the event. I get a lot of hypopneas and have absolutely no idea how shallow I'm breathing when that happens. I know it's not a non-recoverable (I guess that is zero inspiration) because the software doesn't record an NRI at that time, although I might see 1-3 NRIs a night.

I have version 2.3.0 software. Maybe 2.4 will have it. Is anyone with Devilbiss out there listening? You would sell many more machines if you included this and the doctors would thank you, also.