Effective management of obstructive sleep apnea screening and diagnostics

OSA is one of the most common sleep-related disorders characterized by airflow reduction while breathing during sleep and causing significant health problems. The OSA is mainly diagnosed in sleep laboratories with polysomnography, involving high costs and stress for the patients. Nowadays there are multiple systems conducting the specific examinations and analysis in the patient's home, using sensors to detect physiological signals that are examined by algorithms. A home OSA test is an acceptable alternative to polysomnography for OSA diagnosis in patients with high pretest probability without comorbidities. In-hospital sleep study is costly and can be technically challenging. The OSA-5 including issues of snoring, breath holding, choking, mouth breathing and parental concern is a simple questionnaire as a triage screening tool to identify the children at risk of OSA. Despite the expansion in sleep medicine services, there is a significant unmet OSA burden. This burden requires a reappraisal of service delivery, including a move toward lower-cost, simplified methods of diagnosis and treatment, an expansion of OSA workforce to include suitably trained and equipped primary care physicians, sleep medicine specialists and nurses, and the incorporation of chronic disease management principles that link patients to relevant community resources and empower them through new technologies to engage more fully in their own care.

Publication History

Publication Date:
23 April 2019 (online)