Sleep Centers of Middle Tennessee Launches Innovative In-Home Sleep Apnea Care Across Tennessee In Response To COVID-19 Outbreak
OSAinHome(SM) provides evaluation and treatment for sleep apnea without leaving the home.
MURFREESBORO, Tenn., April 2, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- In response to the COVID-19 epidemic, Sleep Centers of Middle Tennessee (SCMT) has released OSAinHomeSM, an innovative program where patients at risk for Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) can now undergo evaluation and treatment without ever leaving their home and without risking exposure to the virus. Not only safe from exposure, OSAinHomeSM has also reduced the time to treatment for OSA from months to as little as 5-10 days and at a fraction of the cost of spending the night in an expensive sleep lab.
"Sleep labs across Tennessee, including our four labs, have shut down, because of exposure risk. For patients who should not wait until the crisis is over, we can help," said Dr. Bijoy John, a board-certified sleep physician at SCMT. "There are patients with heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, etc. who cannot wait until this epidemic is over to be evaluated [for OSA]. There are also sleepy drivers that should certainly not wait."
SCMT was planning to release OSAinHomeSM later this year and initially in Middle Tennessee. However, OSAinHomeSM is available now and to anyone in the state. "This is a difficult time, and we didn't develop OSAinHomeSM to prevent exposure to a virus. We developed it for convenience, and to save time and money," said Dr. William Noah, Medical Director of Sleep Centers of Middle Tennessee, and Chairperson of the Middle Tennessee State University (MTSU) Sleep Research Consortium. "I wish the circumstances were different, and when this crisis is over, we can transfer care for those who desire a sleep provider closer to home."
Patients wear a single-use, disposable cloud-based monitor on their wrist overnight. By using a smart device or computer, patients send their results the next morning by following a few simple steps. If a patient needs CPAP, and choses that treatment, the device is often shipped out to the patient's home that same day.
"CPAP is not a pill. You have to wear it for it to effectively treat sleep apnea, and that has always been our focus," Dr. Noah continued. OSAinHomeSM will make [OSA] diagnosis and treatment more readily available and free from exposure to the virus. It will also make more patients long-term CPAP users, and that's what is life changing."
SCMT was the first practice in the US to remotely monitor and coach CPAP patients to improve adherence. They were the also the first to experiment with a prototypic cellular CPAP modem (made by Philips) in 2007 and introduced elements of Social Cognitive Theory into CPAP therapy. From this, they developed their DREAM (Directed Remote Education and Adherence Monitoring) program and found that their patients were 32-44% more likely to use CPAP regularly than patients from other providers across the nation. In 2017, SCMT formed their research partnership with MTSU, and from that data analysis SCMT developed DREAM 2.0 to further increase their patients' long-term CPAP usage.
For more information about OSAinHomeSM, visit OSAinHome.com, consumers seeking more information should visit https://www.sleepcenterinfo.com/in-home-sleep-apnea-testing email [email protected], or call 615-893-4896.
Sleep Centers of Middle Tennessee's mission is to continually innovate to lead the field of sleep medicine in quality, cost, and convenience of care. For more information about SCMT, visit sleepcenterinfo.com or email [email protected].
SOURCE Sleep Centers of Middle Tennessee
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