Mobile technology could fill a gap in medical diagnosis, reports The Institute, which specifically reports on SleepAp.

Smartphone apps are already available to measure sleep activity such as tossing and turning, waking during the night, heavy breathing, and snoring, which could all be signs of a sleep disorder. Joachim Behar thought he might use these apps to detect sleep apnea, but after spending two months reviewing some 40 of these apps, he and his team at Oxford found them all lacking. They concluded that most were scientifically unsound and did not have any clinical evidence that they are accurate. Taking matters into his own hands, Behar designed SleepAp to help detect sleep apnea with the help of colleagues in Oxford’s department of engineering science.