Itamar’s vice president of digital marketing writes for Forbes on the expanding access of home-based sleep medicine services.
While Covid-19 was the catalyst for the shift to remote monitoring and telemedicine, its importance will not fade even after the pandemic is finally over. Forecasters at Polaris Market Research project that the U.S. telemedicine market will surge in value, from $6.61 billion in 2019 to $17.14 billion in 2026, with that growth driven in large part by the recent expansion of telehealth services.
This February, the AASM issued a position paper endorsing home sleep apnea tests (HSATs), provided that “a technically adequate device can be used.” The AASM noted that polysomnography (PSG) is the gold standard for diagnosing OSA, an illness linked to conditions including diabetes, stroke and cardiovascular disease.
As I stated in a previous article, “the problem was never a lack of technology, but a lack of understanding of market barriers to scale tech offering solutions.” Timing is everything, and with nearly three-quarters of sleep labs having halted in-lab studies during the pandemic and the AASM endorsement of home-based tests, we now have a unique chance to reach our audiences. And I believe we also have an obligation to address the unreasonable 80% of undiagnosed OSA cases, as well as others who suffer from sleep disorders.
