Use of a Remote-Monitoring System to Diagnose and Treat Obstructive Sleep Apnea

March 14, 2014 updated by: University of British Columbia
Although continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is an effective therapy for obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea (OSAH), one of the major impediments to its use is poor compliance. Adherence with CPAP ranges from 50% to 75%, and subjective reports underestimate actual use. The primary objectives are to determine whether a remote monitoring system improves 3 month compliance (average hours of use/night), and reduces the costs of caring for patients with OSAH who are prescribed CPAP.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

The purpose of this study is to determine whether a telemedicine monitoring system can improve the care of patients with OSAH. This system allows close monitoring of patients after prescription of CPAP, and will transmit clinically useful physiologic information (i.e., residual sleep apnea, mask leak, applied pressure, compliance with therapy) daily to the patient's healthcare provider. This should allow early detection of problems with appropriate interventions thereby improving early experience with CPAP, reducing the number of patients who discontinue CPAP therapy and improving overall compliance.

The primary objectives are to determine whether a telemedicine system:1)improves 3 month compliance (average hours of use/night), and 2)reduces the costs of caring for patients with moderate to severe OSAH who are prescribed CPAP.

Secondary objectives are to determine whether this system will improve a variety of other outcomes including: 1) CPAP acceptance (proportion of patients who agree to use CPAP), 2) proportion of high CPAP users (>4 hours average per night), 3) subjective sleepiness, 4) satisfaction with CPAP, 5) side effects with CPAP, 6) # changes in therapy, and 7) time to adequate treatment. In addition, the overall satisfaction of this system will also be assessed.

Telemedicine involves the provision or support of direct clinical care via the application of electronic and communicating technology, including the remote monitoring of health status. By providing patient data early in the course of CPAP prescription, we believe that this technology would be immensely useful in improving compliance and acceptance of the device in patients with sleep apnea.

We intend to perform a randomized controlled trial of this system versus standard care in patients with moderate to severe OSAH. Patients will be randomized to either the 'standard care' arm or the 'telemedicine' arm. To minimize allocation bias, randomization will be performed using sequential numbered envelopes.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

75

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • British Columbia
      • Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, V6T 2B5
        • Sleep Disorders Program, UBC Hospital

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

19 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Patients referred for a sleep study to rule out sleep apnea at the Sleep Disorders Program, University of British Columbia. All patients with documented moderate to severe OSAH (AHI≥15 events per hour by PSG) who are prescribed CPAP by their regular sleep physician, and who are willing to accept a trial of CPAP would potentially eligible for the trial.
  • Patients must also provide a telephone number that would allow contact during regular office hours if necessary. Patients must also have access to a telephone line in their bedroom that can be used to transmit data with the modem.
  • We have decided to only study patients with moderate to severe disease, as these are the patients who are most at risk of future CV disease and motor vehicle crashes. As such, we believe that improving CPAP compliance in this group of patients would be especially important.

Exclusion Criteria:

Patients will be excluded from participating if they:

  • Are unable/unwilling to provide informed consent
  • Have active cardiopulmonary or psychiatric disease
  • Have previously been treated for OSA, or
  • Do not reside in the greater Vancouver area.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: 1
This pathway represents our standard clinical protocol when a patient has been diagnosed with sleep apnea and CPAP therapy is initiated. After prescription of CPAP, all patients will be seen by our CPAP coordinator and oriented to the device during a 20 minute session. Patients are also provided the telephone number of the CPAP coordinator who can be contacted if any problems or questions arise.
Experimental: 2
Telemedicine involves the provision or support of direct clinical care via the application of electronic and communicating technology, including the remote monitoring of health status. By providing patient data early in the course of CPAP prescription, we believe that this technology would be immensely useful in improving compliance and acceptance of the device in patients with sleep apnea.
Device: Telemedicine Arm
Telemedicine involves the provision or support of direct clinical care via the application of electronic and communicating technology, including the remote monitoring of health status. By providing patient data early in the course of CPAP prescription, we believe that this technology would be immensely useful in improving compliance and acceptance of the device in patients with sleep apnea.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
CPAP compliance (3 months) and overall cost of patient care
Time Frame: 3 months
3 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
CPAP acceptance (proportion of patients who agree to use CPAP), proportion of high CPAP users (>4 hours average per night), subjective sleepiness, satisfaction with CPAP, side effects with CPAP, # changes in therapy, and time to adequate treatment.
Time Frame: 3 months
3 months

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

University of British Columbia

Collaborators

Philips Respironics

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Najib Ayas, MD, MPH, University of British Columbia
  • Study Director: Lisa Cortes, RT, University of British Columbia
  • Study Director: John Fleetham, MD, University of British Columbia

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

November 1, 2007

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2010

Study Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2010

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

November 19, 2007

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

November 20, 2007

First Posted (Estimate)

November 21, 2007

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

March 17, 2014

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 14, 2014

Last Verified

March 1, 2014

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • H06-70411
  • C06-0411

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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