Sleep medicine is traditionally thought of as in-lab sleep testing. But techniques have advanced and in-home sleep testing with concurrent telemedicine is a great option for many people.
What is sleep telemedicine?
Telemedicine is basically using technology such as telephone, email, two-way video such as Skype and other tools to exchange medical information.
Telemedicine a long time ago in hospitals trying to reach patients in remote areas. It has since expanded rapidly with improvements in technology and price decreases for technology for both healthcare providers and patients.
What does telemedicine for sleep apnea look like?
There are several options here:
- Consults between a patient and his primary care physician and the sleep specialist to assess a suspected sleep disorder.
- Consults directly between a patient and a sleep specialist (referred by the PCP or self-referred)
- Follow-ups with respiratory therapists or technologists to help patients with on-going compliance, mask fittings and device troubleshooting.
- Remote CPAP usage monitoring (now required by many insurance companies, learn more here)
Is telemedicine going to continue being available for sleep apnea and sleep medicine?
Yes! It has become an important part of our ability to connect with potential patients. In under-served and rural areas of the state, where access to a sleep specialist is limited, telemedicine can bridge the gap.
Sleep apnea is extremely underdiagnosed, to the point that the CDC declared sleep disorders a public health epidemic. There are an estimated 40 million Americans suffering from sleep apnea and only a fraction have received diagnosis and treatment. Major barriers to diagnosis are access to care, education about sleep disorders and treatment and cost. Telemedicine can address and reduce each of these barriers.
There are benefits to patients, physicians and the healthcare system as a whole to embrace telemedicine to improve healthcare access and reduce costs and we expect to see further adoption of telemedicine for sleep medicine and other specialities.
