Telemonitoring in the management of sleep apnea : SEFAM

Telemonitoring in the management of sleep apnea : SEFAM

Overview

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  • Source: SEFAM

  • Date: 08 Dec,2022

The telemonitoring technology has opened up new avenues connecting patients, doctors, and homecare providers. It has a huge potential to support patients clinically and technically, making the treatment more personalized. It has a proven potential to improve CPAP adherence in patients of OSA.

What is OSA?

The Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome (OSAS) is characterized by recurring episodes for at least 10 seconds of upper airway obstruction during sleep. The upper airway closure is either complete (apnea) or partial (hypopnea). These episodes, which are repeated up to several hundred times during sleep, often lead to micro-arousals which substantially alter the quality of sleep. Apneas and hypopneas are almost always accompanied by loud snoring and are a cause of major stress on the cardiovascular system. It is often associated with serious comorbidities and mortality.

The excessive day time sleepiness due to OSA, impacts not only a quality of life but also on the neurocognitive performance in the OSA patients.

Treatments:

Treatment by continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is currently the most effective treatment of

OSAS, as its benefits largely outweigh the drawbacks. CPAP consists in blowing air in the airway to restore normal breathing and sleep patterns during the night using a nasal or a full-face mask which is connected via a tube to the device.

Challenges in the treatment with CPAP:

1.Lack of awareness amongst lay people and medical professionals.

2.Lack of a communication-link between treating sleep specialist, primary physician, home care provider and the patient.

3.High failure rates for home APAP titration, up to 20% in one Canadian study.

4.Similar study shows failure rates at 3 months on PAP application amongst the users. (Pepin JL, et al. Effective compliance during the first 3 months of continuous positive airway pressure: A European prospective study of 121 patients. Am JRespir Crit Care Med 1999; 160:1124–1129)

Thus, Compliance to CPAP is a crucial issue!!

Beneficial effect of CPAP on symptoms (Excessive Daytime Sleepiness and improve daytime functioning) and quality of life is generally obtained after only a few days of treatment and depends on adherence.

Regarding cardiovascular outcomes:

1.CPAP reduces the 24‑hour mean blood pressure by approximately 2 mmHg, the range of improvement being larger in the subgroup with resistant hypertension

2.The extent of blood pressure reduction is probably underestimating the true effect of CPAP in adherent patients

3.Uncontrolled studies and prospective clinical cohorts suggest that CPAP is able to reduce the number of fatal and non-fatal cardiovascular events, including arrhythmias, myocardial infarction and stroke.

4.But CPAP effects on incident hypertension and cardiovascular events were not significant in largest RCT (SAVE), but became significant in the subgroup analysis of patients with OSAS who used CPAP for more than 4 hours per night.

Telemonitoring seems to be a promising technology in improving the compliance and adherence of CPAP usage by the OSA patients. It is now possible to monitor adherence, compliance, mask leaks, residual apnoea and CPAP pressure etc in the form of tables and graphs, remotely. Sefam has been the pioneer of Telemonitoring technology of CPAP patients from very early days.

OxyLink – external modem was first of its kind technology enabling the remote patient monitoring with Sefam Connect portal dedicated for telemonitoring of the users of Ecostar and DreamStar CPAP and APAP devices.

Sefam Connect Telemonitoring tool

S.Box platform which has now range of CPAP, APAP and Bi-Level is now fully enabled with GSM and WiFi Modem, which is capable of transferring the complete usage data to the Sefam Connect platform. The authorised clinical personnel can monitor their patients and also change settings of S.Box remotely.

Proven advantages of Telemonitoring of CPAP patients:

1.Maximize treatment compliance and therapy effectiveness:

2.React timely to too few usage hours

3.React timely to too high AHI and leaks

4.Change settings of the device remotely

5.Allow physicians to access PT data

6.Engage PT in the therapy

Maximize your service effectiveness

1.Avoid unnecessary PT visits

2.Focus on PTs that require your attention

3.Easy access to treatment data and compliance reporting, no hassle shipping datacards

4.Ease of reporting (to insurance, to physician)

For more information:

Customer Service | India

T: +91 777 8910 601

E: customercare.india@sefam-medical.com

Customer Service | France

T: +33 (0)3 83 44 85 50

E: customerservice@sefam-medical.com

About Sefam:

Since it was founded in 1982, the Nancy-based French company Sefam has been designing, manufacturing, and commercializing diagnostic and therapy devices for Sleep disordered Expertise: Proud of our history and our 30 years of experience, we put all our expertise at the service of our patients. We are constantly looking to improve our solutions, to create even more accurate and personalized cutting-edge technology. Sefam places a great deal of importance on feedback from customers, doctors, distributors and home healthcare providers, because only by working together the perfect solutions can be derived to achieve a common goal: to improve the health of patients. The Medical Advisory Board, guides Sefam. Thus, the products and services are inspired by doctors and researchers. Sefam has all the necessary quality certifications (ISO 9001, EN 13485, FDA, etc.) demonstrating quality and safety of our devices.

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