The European Commission has approved Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc’s Sunosi (solriamfetol) to improve wakefulness and reduce excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS) in adults with narcolepsy (with or without cataplexy) or obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) whose sleepiness has not been satisfactorily treated by primary sleep apnea therapy, such as CPAP. Sunosi is the first dual-acting dopamine and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor approved to treat EDS in adults living with narcolepsy or OSA and the only licensed therapy in the European Union for the treatment of EDS in adults living with OSA.

“We are excited that with this approval we can offer Sunosi, a daytime medicine that can provide sustained wakefulness throughout the day, to patients living with excessive daytime sleepiness as a result of OSA or narcolepsy in Europe, where historically, treatment options have been very limited,” says Bruce Cozadd, chairman and CEO of Jazz Pharmaceuticals, in a release.

Once-daily Sunosi is approved with doses of 75 mg and 150 mg for people with narcolepsy and doses of 37.5 mg, 75 mg, and 150 mg for patients with OSA. At Week 12 of the

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Pulmonologists speak to US News about the best sleeping positions to prevent sleep apnea.

Sleeping on your stomach can be awkward, and some people who try it find they wake up with a stiff neck. Choosing a very thin pillow or a pillow made specifically for stomach sleepers may help reduce strain on the neck when lying face down.

When sleeping on your side, you’ll likely need a thicker pillow to support the head and neck. Some people prefer to cuddle up to a large body pillow to help keep them in the right position. There are lots of pillows that are marketed specifically for addressing sleep apnea concerns, so do a little research and try out a

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ResMed Corp has agreed to pay more than $37.5 million to resolve False Claims Act violation allegations. ResMed denies that it violated the law. The US Department of Justice (DOJ) alleged that ResMed paid kickbacks to durable medical equipment (DME) suppliers, sleep labs, and other health care providers.

The Anti-Kickback Statute prohibits the knowing and willful payment of any remuneration to induce the referral of services or items that are paid for by a federal healthcare program, such as Medicare, Medicaid, or TRICARE. Claims submitted to these programs in violation of the Anti-Kickback Statute give rise to liability under the False Claims Act.

The settlement resolves allegations that ResMed (a) provided DME companies with free telephone call center services and other free patient outreach services that enabled these companies to order resupplies for their patients with sleep apnea, (b) provided sleep labs with free and below-cost positive airway pressure masks and diagnostic machines, as well as free installation of these machines, (c) arranged for, and fully guaranteed the payments due on, interest-free loans that DME supplies acquired from third-party financial

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Oral appliance use can cause occlusal changes in sleep apnea patients. Dentists should track tooth and jaw movements, but conservative interventions are typically all that is needed.

By C.A. Wolski

For many patients, oral appliance therapy is an effective alternative to CPAP for treating obstructive sleep apnea. However, as with CPAP, clinicians and patients need to be aware of potential side effects.

Among the most common side effects are occlusal changes, including shifting of bites and interproximal spaces, which can affect a significant number of patients. For example, in a 5-year study of 45 patients, 67% experienced a decrease in occlusal contacts.¹ A separate study found significant decreases in anterior and posterior overbites with long-term oral appliance use, which, particularly for normal or shallow baseline overbite patients, can cause an open bite.²

While clinically occlusal changes can be significant, they’re often a case of millimeters of change—and rarely noticed by patients.

“Patients don’t often complain about changes,” says Mark T. Murphy, DDS, DABDSM, a dentist who practices in Rochester, Minn, and who is lead faculty for clinical

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Itamar Medical Ltd’s WatchPAT home sleep test has been selected for inclusion in the Weizmann Institute’s Project 10K.The 10K Project is a longitudinal study designed to collect lifestyle and clinical data from 10,000 individuals over ten years and aims to use state-of-the-art artificial intelligence technologies to analyze the data in order to generate personalized predictions for disease risk factors. These predictions may improve health outcomes by enabling detection and intervention of treatable medical conditions prior to the onset of symptoms.

“The choice of Itamar Medical’s advanced WatchPAT system for the diagnosis of sleep apnea emphasizes the relationship and significance that the medical and public health communities attribute to the sleep dimension and the impact of sleep quality on the risks of morbidity and heart disease in particular,” says Gilad Glick, president and CEO of Itamar Medical, in a release. “We are pleased to be part of Project 10K and to help expand the understanding of the role that sleep apnea plays in multiple aspects of human health.”

As part of the project, Itamar will provide 150,000 WatchPAT tests for

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Sleep health company FusionHealth and sleep monitoring and diagnostics company Nox Medical have joined forces to form Nox Health. The companies say they are united by a vision to enable access to sleep health care through people-centered solutions and aim to bring more expertise, innovation, and collaboration to the field through their combined efforts.

Nox Health is addressing the global sleep health epidemic by providing employers and other healthcare payers with new ways to prioritize well-being through healthy sleep, while also equipping healthcare providers with solutions that enable patient access to comprehensive and more accurate diagnoses of sleep problems.

“We have been working alongside Nox Medical for years, and this move is the next natural milestone for our companies,” says Sigurjon Kristjansson, co-founder of FusionHealth and CEO of Nox Health, in a release. “Nox Medical’s depth of expertise in the sleep diagnostic technology space, combined with the breadth of solutions available through FusionHealth, will allow us to amplify our impact and help far more people than either of us could do alone.”

Known for its technology-enabled, population-based sleep health solutions,

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Losing weight is an effective treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), but why exactly this is the case has remained unclear. Now researchers in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered that improvements in OSA symptoms appear to be linked to the reduction of fat in one unexpected body part—the tongue.

Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to measure the effect of weight loss on the upper airway in obese patients, researchers found that reducing tongue fat is a primary factor in lessening the severity of OSA. The findings were published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

“Most clinicians, and even experts in the sleep apnea world, have not typically focused on fat in the tongue for treating sleep apnea,” says Richard Schwab, MD, chief of Sleep Medicine, in a release. “Now that we know tongue fat is a risk factor and that sleep apnea improves when tongue fat is reduced, we have established a unique therapeutic target that we’ve never had before.”

A 2014 study led by Schwab compared obese patients

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