Home testing paid for by OHIP? It is here.
Sleep apnea is a common ailment, affecting about 10 per cent of adults. Recent studies in the U.S. (and Canada) indicate that it’s largely undiagnosed, with at least 85 per cent of sufferers unaware they have the condition.
Health consequences can be dire when sleep apnea goes untreated. People afflicted with sleep apnea are exhausted all day, and have a high risk of being in a car or industrial accident. They also have an even greater risk of developing high blood pressure, stroke or heart failure. When sleep apnea is suspected, many investigate what to do. The problem for many is the discomfort and inconvenience of the diagnostic sleep test.
The Marketplace has listened
Ontario Canada will see the first at home sleep apnea test in 2017/18. And it is paid for by OHIP. The MaRS Excite program is behind this new development and the BresoDx home testing device. This device virtually eliminates everything required to be adhered to the human body for a thorough sleep test.
The Ontario government recently announced that the device will be available later in 2017. Sleep clinics throughout Ontario will issue these home tests.
Why the BresoDx was created 
The device was manufactured from a need to address undiagnosed sleep apnea people in Long Term Homecare environments. This acute need is exemplified where transporting older residents with suspected sleep apnea (into sleep labs) proves difficult. This sleep apnea device is a part of a program which MOHLTCH will foot the bill.
The Pilot Project
Director of research and senior scientist at Toronto Rehab, biomedical engineer Dr. Geoff Fernie is CEO of BresoTec, the company that produces BresoDx. He says the company and its device might well have perished without the pilot program.
“A startup can only make it if it’s got some market, somewhere. If it hasn’t got its home market and it has to wait until it has produced its product and put it on the market and then has to wait another two or three years to get accepted into its home market, it’ll die.”
Shahira Bhimani, the director of MaRS Excite, says the two-year BresoDx demonstration project — in which up to 3,000 Ontarians a year will try out the device — is “a huge win.”
The program aims to “innovate in the direction the health system is going,” Bhimani says.
Good News for Sleep Apnea Sufferers
Respirologist Dr. Douglas Bradley, a University of Toronto medical school professor and head of the Sleep Research Laboratory at Toronto Rehab, is one of the three experts credited with BresoDx’s creation, along with Fernie and Dr. Hisham Alshaer, a physician, biomedical engineer and scientist at Toronto Rehab. Bradley says there’s no doubt that having Excite’s stamp of approval “accelerates our access to the Canadian market.”
Bradley says their mostly plastic device, which requires a memory to record data, is already selling in Canada, the U.K., Turkey and Italy. He and his co-creators are optimistic about how its adoption in Ontario will spur further market penetration.
“It’s one of the best-validated devices on the market for accurately diagnosing sleep apnea,” says Bradley of BresoDx, which was tested in three separate clinical trials during its Excite incubation. “And it differs from other devices in being much simpler. All you have to do is put the device on with a head strap, pull a tab, push a button and that’s it.” In contrast to BresoDx, virtually all other devices on the market use the same technology as that used in sleep labs, except with fewer electrodes.
William Charnetski, who occupies the province’s Office of the Chief Health Innovation Strategist, through which the MaRS Excite program is funded, points out that Excite’s products fulfill three of his mandates: improving the patient experience, injecting money into the health-care system by using Ontario facilities to test products, and creating jobs: BresoTec has 17 full-time employees.
“Healthcare is arguably the fastest-growing industry sector globally, and Ontario right now has a $52-billion budget and that’s only growing,” Charnetski says. “Not only should we be delivering excellent patient outcomes in an efficient way, but we should be leveraging that investment as an economic driver in Ontario.”
It’s a Win-Win
Undiagnosed sleep apnea costs the health-care system; Bradley further purports that studies indicate the cost of treating people with sleep apnea for cardiovascular diseases goes down by 40 per cent once their sleep apnea has been addressed.
Although this diagnostic option is in its infant stages of becoming mainstream throughout the province, an Ontario-based Vendor is offering a low-cost diagnostic alternative in the meantime.
With CPAPClinic you have a compareable low-cost option during this Pilot Program
While waiting for the BresoDx device to become mainstream, a comparable device called Apnealink can confirm sleep apnea with a one or two night test. It works with a probe slipping on one finger while a nasal application is positioned lightly under your nose. The Apnealink records your sleep time. When the unit is returned to CPAPClinic, your overnight data** is analyzed and becomes a report for your use and a good discussion between you and your General Practioner or Sleep Doctor.
Learn more here.
Portions of the above post are from this announcement.
In Conclusion
CPAPClinic is dedicated to learning about new developments and informing our readers. Look for our updates as they become available.
Questions?
Call 1.877.430.2727 for help.
Edited by Bill Bistak B Sc.,SEO/SEM Spc, CRT
Cpapclinic is a vendor of the latest CPAP supplies and accessories since 2014. Cpapclinic operates two locations: Mississauga and Vaughan in Ontario, Canada and is available to serve you online: www.cpapclinic.ca
* An earlier version of this post indicated that OHIP would cover the costs of the device for patients, based on incorrect information from MaRS. In fact, the provincial Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care will cover the costs.
** at this point in time, the Apnealink does not replace a sleep study but it may suggest the need for one in a sleep lab.
