Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a serious and life-threatening condition. Approximately 5.9 million adults are diagnosed with OSA, but as many as 23 million people are estimated to be dealing with OSA yet go undiagnosed.
The impact on health can be significant, ranging from inconveniences to life-threatening illnesses. Obstructive sleep apnea can cause disrupted sleep for both OSA sufferers and partners. Patients often wake up with headaches and fall asleep more often during the day.
More serious conditions include:
- High blood pressure
- Heart problems
- Type 3 diabetes
- Liver problems
Those dealing with OSA are at increased risk of accidents and have significantly higher rates of cardiac arrest and death. When you stop breathing for ten seconds or longer during sleep and this happens repeatedly each hour, it can lower oxygen levels and place extraordinary stress on the heart.
The Benefits of AI in Monitoring and Treating Sleep Disorders
The typical way of monitoring and treating sleep disorders is to undergo nocturnal polysomnography, more commonly called a clinical sleep test. During the test, the patient is hooked up for monitoring heart, lung, and brain activity, breathing patterns, and blood oxygen levels. Tests typically take place in a lab setting, where the patient is monitored overnight while sleeping. Sleep studies can be invasive and uncomfortable for patients, as well as expensive.
Diagnosis and Detection breakthroughs
Instead of clinical sleep studies, doctors are increasingly turning to AI-enhanced peripheral wrist sensors from Oxitone. Sensors measure changes in arterial oxygen saturation and measure heart rate while patients sleep comfortably at home.
Rather than having to monitor at a sleep facility, physicians can access real-time data remotely. This frees up clinicians to spend more time focusing directly on patient care.
Because of the ease of testing, risk assessments can be conducted more quickly, leading to earlier diagnoses and treatments to address OSA’s potentially life-threatening symptoms.
Ongoing Monitoring
AI can help aid in sleep scoring and the ongoing monitoring of events. It can monitor the real-time data flow and train itself to predict and help avoid adverse events.
Monitoring can track ongoing conditions, while the AI uses data correlation and predictive analysis to discern even subtle changes in patient conditions. Using baseline data, AI can predict the potential of adverse events based on the patient’s personal history and previous events.
Patients can reduce stress using AI-enhanced devices. They can literally rest easier when they know that there’s someone watching out for them. AI can alert physicians quickly to changes in conditions that may warrant further examination.
Clinicians can also better judge the effectiveness of treatments as patterns emerge over time. Previously, conditions were diagnosed with sleep studies, but the effectiveness was measured more by personal experience and partner observations. These subjective measures were often flawed. Monitoring provides ongoing real-time monitoring that provides objective data for analysis.
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine says that AI and machine learning provide a variety of benefits for monitoring and treating sleep disorders in OSA patients, including:
- More accurate diagnoses, including classification of patients into clearly defined diagnostic categories
- Better disease prediction
- Improved treatment prognosis
- Optimization and personalization of sleep treatments
- Improved clinical response to interventions
This can reduce the trial-and-error method of treatments that are often necessary to determine the root cause of sleep apnea.
How Oxitone Helps with Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Oxitone is the world’s first FDA-cleared wrist sensor pulse oximeter wearable device. Proven effective at monitoring sleep patterns, it’s a less invasive solution.
The Oxitone wrist sensor pulse oximeter also helps with monitoring and treating sleep disorders by tracking and comparing to patient norms the following:
- Respiratory rate
- Skin temperature
- Motion and activity
- Blood oxygen (SpO2)
- Pulse rate and heart rate variability
Real-time data can be sent electronically (and automatically) to care providers. AI-enhanced monitoring can help recognize changes in conditions to alert patients and caregivers to potential adverse events before they become critical. For example, oxygen desaturation and potential cardiac arrhythmias may be detected by monitoring SpO2 and heart rate variability. AI can provide predictive analysis to warn of changing conditions to head off cardiac events.
Patients can reduce their stress levels while living with obstructive sleep apnea and get peace of mind with follow-up treatments. For healthcare providers, using the Oxitone wrist sensor pulse oximeter for monitoring and treating sleep disorders can reduce labor costs, improve treatment effectiveness, and provide the data that clinicians need to better manage care and follow-up after discharge.
Learn More
For more information about Oxitone’s AI-enhanced wrist sensor pulse oximeter and how it can improve diagnosis and treatment for patients with obstructive sleep apnea, contact Oxitone today.
Here at Oxitone, we boost value-based healthcare by delivering extraordinary patient, clinical, and economical outcomes at reduced medical utilization and cost. Patients need a prompt response to emergencies. Physicians need an easy and timely follow-up with patients. Our mission is to transform chronic disease management and help save lives worldwide.
Let’s save lives together! To see how we help remote patient monitoring companies and physicians improve the management and care of high-risk patients, contact us today!