March 12th, 2010 by Jerusha Michael

To see how Mic Iver RPSGT saves the night, check out this video!
www.clevemed.com/adventureRPSGT
On a less playful note: The Sapphire PSG sleep platform is small and wireless, integrating the headbox, amplifiers, transducers (of a typical PSG System), and data telemetry into one hand-held unit to transmit data from the patient. When using wireless PSG equipment, like the Sapphire PSG, there are fewer components, meaning easier setup and lower risk of individual component failure. Even setups outside of the lab become more feasible, and a comprehensive sleep diagnostic service can come to the patient.
Also, with wireless PSG, the patient is untethered, can get up during the sleep study and move around freely, to get a drink of water, use the restroom, etc, without needing to be untethered by the sleep tech each time; ultimately leading to a better night’s sleep for the patient, and potentially eliminating first night effect.
Tags: Mic Iver, Sapphire PSG, wireless PSG
Posted in Sleep Disorders | 2 Comments »
March 5th, 2010 by Jerusha Michael
Poor quality of sleep tends to accompany common illnesses, and life stressors (including family and social structure changes); patients tend to visit their primary care physician (PCP) who has knowledge of these factors that are related with their sleep problems. Symptoms and complaints associated with Obstructive Sleep Apnea are often expressed at a higher frequency in the primary care practice setting.
Patients often go to a sleep lab for OSA diagnosis & evaluation. On many instances, the primary care physician looses direct contact with his/her patient’s sleep condition and overall care path. An alternative to sending patients to a sleep lab test is to begin the diagnosis and management process within the primary care setting, by utilizing newer technology that makes sleep diagnosis portable and more readily accessible.
CleveMed’s sleep study network connects the primary care physician to sleep technologists, and board certified sleep physicians, so that the primary doc is able to be involved in the patient’s continuum of care. Here’s how:
The PCP interviews the patient about his sleep health and medical history.
The nurse gives the SleepView (home sleep testing) kit to the patient with easy instructions on how to use the SleepView.
The self-administered sleep apnea test is completed with ease in the patient’s own bed. The patient returns the SleepView kit to the doctor’s office upon completion of the home sleep test.
The office staff uploads the sleep study data from the SleepView to CleveMed. The sleep data is scored by sleep technicians at CleveMed, and a board certified sleep physician interprets the study. The PCP is notified when a report is ready.
Finally, follow-up discussions are held with the patient to evaluate their therapy every three months or as needed.
This way, the PCP can maintain management of his/her patients’ sleep apnea and associated conditions.
Tags: clevemed, osa diagnosis, primary care physicians, sleep apnea, sleep study
Posted in Sleep Disorders | No Comments »
February 26th, 2010 by Jerusha Michael
It all began when it was time for the needed photoshoot for SleepView, (our new baby among CleveMed’s family of sleep diagnostic devices). I went to Sarah (my boss) and said, “Who should be the model?” She paused a moment, then rattled off 2 names from the engineering department. “Maybe they would like to help?” she smiled sweetly.
I emailed them both; a pleading, cajoling couple of sentences, and waited. Surprisingly, they seemed quite happy to switch gears for a bit, and the first affirmative came 48 minutes sooner than the other. So the choice was easy: Dominic.
The day before the photo/video-shoot was quite a buzz of activity.
Props: our sleep-study area needed to look like “home” because…? You guessed right, SleepView is a portable sleep monitor, especially suited for home sleep testing.
Costumes: PJs that not only match, but look stunning with SleepView!
SleepView itself with its accessories… I was making & re-making lists of all the photos we needed to take.
Sarah and I did not forget to caution Dominic, “Try not to do any construction-home-remodeling work before tomorrow, ok? We can’t have bleeding hands or jammed fingernails. Maybe you should consider a manicure…? Your hands need to look good holding the SleepView.”
Dominic was kind enough to not back out of the whole thing while he had the chance.
Tony (our photographer) was just amazing. Just being in Tony’s studio, seemed to make the creative juices flow. We were spouting all kinds of ideas for future ad campaigns: one part of me marveled, yet another part of me cringed. But we needed this rambling I think… Dominic needed to take his mind off the discomfort he must have surely endured, from holding his hands out over a white board, and obeying 5-syllable instructions from Tony: “An-inch-to-the-left.” “Turn-device-clock-wise. No, your clock-wise.” “Curve your index finger a little toward you?” (No kidding, Dominic left for vacation the next day).
Finally, Tony dropped off our DVD and I must say that Dominic’s hands look good holding the SleepView and the SleepView looks just great: small, compact, and oh-so-easy to handle! But Tony was not the only one who took pictures that day. I just had to sneak a couple of cell phone pics that I have posted on our Facebook page. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did.
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Tags: AASM certified, home sleep monitor, home sleep testing, sleep diagnostic device, SleepView, type 3
Posted in Biomedical Engineering, Sleep Disorders | 5 Comments »
February 19th, 2010 by Dustin Heldman
The Movement Disorders Division of CleveMed has primarily focused on monitoring motor symptoms associated with Parkinson’s disease (PD). A more common movement disorder is essential tremor (ET), which affects approximately 4% of the population over age 40 in the United States. In Parkinson’s disease, tremor (involuntary shaking) occurs primarily at rest, but essential tremor is mainly characterized by tremor of a moving limb.
Measuring Tremor
Subjective Rating: Tremor associated with essential tremor is traditionally rated by various subjective tremor rating scales. These scales all provide a discrete, subjective symptom rating at a discrete point in time. They require a clinician to visually assess the patient, and cannot capture complex fluctuations that occur throughout the day in response to interventions.
Objective Rating: Objectively capturing essential tremor symptoms continuously during daily activities, and using adaptive algorithms to both classify tremor types and severity, could help clinicians better adjust therapy to minimize symptom fluctuations, and expand care to rural and underserved populations. Therefore, CleveMed has recently begun development on a system to objectively monitor essential tremor.
CleveMed previously developed a compact wireless system, Kinesia™, to quantify Parkinson’s disease symptoms. In a clinical study, this system successfully demonstrated objective quantification of Parkinson’s disease motor symptoms. These promising results for Parkinson’s disease suggest the system may be adapted for quantifying tremor in essential tremor patients by developing specific ET algorithms. More continuous portable monitoring can capture the tremor fluctuations that can occur throughout the day. Using a combination of accelerometers and gyroscopes will provide a system with much greater sensitivity for tremor type discrimination and severity rating. (Existing systems contain only a single-axis accelerometer). Continuous ratings throughout the day can aid clinicians and researchers in therapy development and optimizing symptom management for patients with essential tremor.
Tags: Essential Tremor, motor symptoms, parkinson's disease, rating tremor, tremor monitoring, tremor severity
Posted in Movement Disorders | No Comments »