Ingvar Hjalmarsson, chief product officer at sleep diagnostics company Nox Medical, says, “Our customers prefer to measure airflow because it matters when determining treatment pathways for patients. Technology & Clinical AcceptanceĬlinicians who are already comfortable with home sleep testing devices that don’t measure airflow (such as Itamar’s use of peripheral arterial tonometry or PAT) may be more likely to switch to this new generation of fully disposable home sleep tests-neither WatchPAT ONE nor NightOwl incorporates airflow cannulas. “The number of fully disposable electronic devices that will have to be tossed away needlessly can be in the hundreds of thousands every year, which adds to the waste problem that many are trying to avoid,” says CleveMed’s Kayyali. Other stakeholders also note the environmental impact. Similarly, when the pandemic is over, reducing the waste (electronics and plastics) associated with those devices will become more important.” Prices should continue to come down to accommodate reduced reimbursement rates, while at the same time the feature set of disposable devices should expand. McCourt says, “The pandemic has emphasized the need to innovate, and we are not sitting on our laurels. “I’m assuming that companies like Ectosense and Itamar will be able to lower their costs as time goes on and they get more clients,” Ramabadran says. The reason we opted to have part of our HST disposable and the other part not was really just to lower our cost.” But he adds that economies of scale will work in the favor of fully disposable home sleep testing companies if the segment continues to grow. “The solution must be affordable otherwise, the equipment will not be used.”Īrun Ramabadran, CEO of REMware, which offers home sleep testing logistics services, says, “From at least a market pricing standpoint, I think the biggest disadvantage is that if you’re using a fully disposable unit it’s more difficult to lower your price. Given the declining reimbursement, the per-study cost is a serious consideration,” says Hani Kayyali, president and CEO of sleep diagnostics company CleveMed. “Electronic devices that are used many times are inherently less expensive on a per usage basis than those used once because the cost of the device is spread over many uses. One, quite literally, is the financial cost. There are other costs too, say other stakeholders. (This also means Ectosense had to invest in a team of mobile developers to keep the connections running smoothly.) For example, Ectosense removed on-device memory, meaning NightOwl requires a connection with a smartphone. “I believe that physicians sometimes underestimate how a convenient test that speaks the language of the patient (ie, through an accompanying app) helps drive better testing and even therapy outcomes,” says Ectosense CEO Ciaran McCourt.īut for disposable devices to become cost-effective, “some trade-offs have to be made,” McCourt concedes. Producing over 10,000 NightOwl devices in November alone, fully disposable HST has allowed Ectosense to achieve scale advantages almost immediately out of the gate. Itamar Medical released the WatchPAT ONE in June 2019, and Ectosense released the NightOwl in June 2020. Two companies in particular have been marketing fully disposable versions of HST devices. Whereas patients have had to return the diagnostic base unit, they can now simply discard the entire device after receiving almost-immediate results-but this newfound agility comes with some costs. But they aren’t for everyone.Īlthough home sleep testing (HST) has been available to patients for some time, a new category of fully disposable HST devices is now changing the landscape for providers and patients alike. WatchPAT ONE and NightOwl ease cross-contamination worries and offer almost-immediate sleep apnea testing results.
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