Itamar Medical Ltd has launched the WatchPAT 300, the next generation of its WatchPAT system for home sleep apnea testing.

“[Sleep apnea] has significant health and economic implications, as half of all patients with cardiovascular disease are believed to suffer from sleep apnea and the total cost of unmanaged obstructive sleep apnea is $150 billion each year in the United States alone,” says Gilad Glick, president and CEO of Itamar Medical, in a release. “Addressing the challenge of efficiently and cost-effectively diagnosing the millions of patients with undiagnosed sleep apnea requires a simple, accurate, and scalable modality. We believe that WatchPAT 300—which demonstrates Itamar Medical’s continued commitment to innovation focused on meeting the needs of patients, health systems, payers, and physicians—can play a critical role in solving this challenge.”

WatchPAT 300 utilizes peripheral arterial tone and other signals to calculate various sleep metrics and to diagnose both obstructive and central sleep apnea.

WatchPAT 300 has three points of contact does not use a nasal canula or chest belts. It is based on the peripheral arterial tone signal (PAT) and uses its actigraphy to differentiate between wake and sleep periods, which Itamar says means that it calculates true sleep time (not only total recording time). WatchPAT 300 uses the PAT amplitude and pulse rate to differentiate between non-rapid eye movement (REM) and REM sleep. It also provides sleep architecture, based on sleep stages, including sleep efficiency, sleep latency, and REM latency. WatchPAT 300 includes a Central+ module, which enables identification for central sleep apnea events. It includes one-stop preparation with fast download and automated study preparation time to improve workflow.

WatchPAT 300 was granted 510(k) clearance by the US Food and Drug Administration on August 17, 2018 and will gradually replace the current WatchPAT 200 platform. WatchPAT 300 will be presented at SLEEP 2019 on June 8-12 in San Antonio (booth # 916). WatchPAT 300 will be compatible with zzzPAT software and CloudPAT, Itamar Medical’s cloud-based IT solution for sleep diagnosis and secure patient data transfers.