The United Kingdom (UK)’s continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device market is set to reach $45.5m by 2028, growing at a compound annual growth rate of 10.3%, prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, according to GlobalData, a data and analytics company.

Aliyah Farouk, medical device analyst at GlobalData, says in a release, “Since the COVID-19 outbreak, the use of CPAP machines as life support devices for coronavirus patients needing intensive care has been trialed in countries such as Italy and China. The UK followed course with Mercedes F1 and mechanical engineers at University College London, as well as clinicians at University College London Hospital (UCLH), collaborating to produce these re-engineered machines as a less invasive alternative to ventilators.”

Previous National Health Service (NHS) recommendations advised against the use of CPAP for COVID-19 patients. However, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has given its approval for the device’s use as approximately one hundred of the machines have been rolled out for clinical trials at UCLH, and many more have been planned to be distributed across the country.

Farouk says, …

A group of doctors and engineers from UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley, and other hospitals have developed a technique for repurposing CPAPs AND BiPAPs so they can be used as ventilators. The group, calling themselves the COVID-19 Ventilator Rapid Response Team, have developed a way to retrofit off-the-shelf sleep apnea devices so they can mimic the function of a ventilator that gets oxygen into the lungs of patients who are seriously ill with the new coronavirus. To get these adapted ventilators into hospitals quickly, they are seeking speedy FDA approval and want to enlist local and federal officials. They also are requesting donations of CPAP and BIPAP devices that citizens may have in their homes and not be using.

Government regulations typically restrict the development and use of medical devices for purposes for which they were not designed. The Food and Drug Administration has issued new guidance in light of the ventilator shortage, enabling sleep apnea machines to be used by hospitals caring for patients infected by COVID-19. Doctors and engineers collaborated on the design and are in the process …

A sister company to SoClean launches an end-to-end telemedicine network.

By Sree Roy

Disparate companies from corporate chains to patient-led startups have recently declared their intentions to smooth over bumps that undiagnosed sleep apnea patients sometimes trip over in the in-lab testing to treatment model. The latest entrant is “Lunella,” a direct-to-consumer end-to-end telemedicine network by the executives from SoClean, the ozone device company that is working with the US Food and Drug Administration to have its CPAP cleaner approved.

Robert Wilkins, CEO of Lunella and SoClean, realized he could make a difference in the lives of the huge number of people who have sleep apnea but are undiagnosed—by increasing their sleep care access, comfort, and convenience. So he started putting the pieces together for an all-at-home diagnosis-to-therapy option. First he wanted to address “bulky” home testing devices that have to be returned. “So when we saw what Itamar Medical had with the WatchPAT ONE [disposable sleep apnea test], we thought this was the first piece,” he says. “You don’t have to send it back. And the information …

The Veteran’s Association and Department of Defense recently released guidelines for managing insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea among patients in their health care system, Healio reports.

“Sleep disorders are highly prevalent in military service members and veterans, and more prevalent in these populations than civilians,” co-author Christi Ulmer, PhD, an assistant professor in psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine and faculty in the Durham VA Healthcare System Behavioral Medicine Post-Doctoral training program, told Healio Primary Care.

One study found that among surveyed military personnel, 48.6% had poor sleep quality. Another found that the prevalence of insomnia symptoms among service members was 41% in those deployed in combat and 25% among those who did not serve in combat.

“To date, however, health care providers have not been provided with clear guidance on how to address the [two] most prominent sleep disorders, insomnia disorder and obstructive sleep apnea,” Ulmer said. “The VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guidelines were written with frontline providers in mind and offer an evidence-based approach to management of these conditions.”

Get the full story at Healio.com.…

In an interview with HCPLive, Seema Khosla, MD, Medical Director of the Center for Sleep, explained that a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device can potentially spread the droplets further than normal breathing, putting loved ones at an increased risk of developing the COVID-19 virus.

Khosla said the best advice is if someone has tested positive for COVID-19 or presumes they have some symptoms of the virus then they should sleep in separate rooms and maintain distances even within the same household. She also advised to place increased emphasis on washing your hands prior to putting on the CPAP mask. Overall, sleep apnea patients represent 80-90% of Khosla’s practice.

As the focus in the medical community is currently on treating COVID-19 positive patients and testing as many people as possible, there still are other ailments that must be treated and routine services that are still important. Khosla said her practice has recently switched to 100% telemedicine to ensure the safety of her staff and patients.

Get the full story at mdmag.com.

from Sleep Review https://www.sleepreviewmag.com/sleep-disorders/breathing-disorders/obstructive-sleep-apnea/sleep-apnea-coronavirus-transmission/…

A substantial percentage of Medicare beneficiaries with sleep disorders undergo evaluations by board-certified sleep medicine providers, with the majority of clinicians treating patients with insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea, according to study results published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

Previous research has demonstrated that consultation with a board-certified sleep medicine provider may be associated with positive patient outcomes, including improved adherence to recommended treatment regimens. However, there has been conflicting data, and therefore the investigators conducted the study to assess the national patterns of sleep medicine care delivery by board-certified sleep medicine providers.­

In this study, US-based sleep medicine researchers assessed a random 5% sample of Medicare administrative claims data from 2007 to 2011 to identify board-certified sleep medicine providers who evaluated Medicare beneficiaries with sleep disorders.

Get full story at neurologyadvisor.com.

from Sleep Review https://www.sleepreviewmag.com/sleep-health/sleep-medicine-medicare-beneficiaries-sleep-disorders/…

During the coronavirus pandemic, sleep professionals decide what procedures occur now and which are postponed, using general guidance from government agencies and professional associations.

By Greg Thompson

In the ever-changing COVID-19 crisis, professional associations and government agencies have stayed away from rigid definitions of what constitutes “essential” services, while at the same time recommending or mandating that nonessential and elective services must be postponed. Many people assume that “elective” means optional; while “elective” does include optional procedures, it also includes necessary procedures that can be scheduled in advance (versus “urgent” services, such as appendectomies, and “emergency” services, such as controlling life-threatening bleeding). For sleep medicine clinicians, guidelines have taken the form of strong recommendations that leave room for clinical judgement based on the particulars of each situation.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) “did not provide a strict definition of ‘non-essential’ care, allowing clinicians to analyze the risks and benefits of any planned procedure,” says Kelly Carden, MD, MBA, president of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM). “However, CMS did provide several factors that should be considered, …