Itamar Medical Ltd will unveil new WatchPAT Scoring Guidelines at SLEEP 2018. Itamar Medical describes the guidelines as a streamlined approach for reviewing and editing WatchPAT data that integrates automated scoring with visual oversight.

Researchers at Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorder Center developed the evidence-based guidelines, which will be presented June 5, 2018 at a lunch symposium hosted by Itamar Medical.

Itamar Medical’s WatchPAT is an FDA-approved portable diagnostic device that uses finger-based physiology to enable simple and accurate sleep apnea testing and is different from traditional airflow-based systems. It is based on peripheral arterial tone (PAT) signal.

While Clinical Practice Guidelines published in early 2017 officially recognized PAT-based technologies as technically adequate for home sleep testing, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and most third-party payers require the raw data be available for review by a sleep expert and manual editable as needed. WatchPAT technology has an ability to render a fully automated, validated report, but methods for implementing guidelines for scoring and review of WatchPAT recordings have not previously been available. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Sleep Center have now addressed this challenge with the development of WatchPAT Scoring Guidelines.

“We found WatchPAT to be a cost-effective, easy to use and reliable HSAT method,” says Alan Schwartz, MD, professor of medicine and the director of the Sleep Disorder Center at Johns Hopkins and an author on the guidelines, in a release. “Its accuracy in diagnosing sleep apnea is enhanced by its ability to estimate actual sleep time rather than total recording time. Our goal in developing Scoring Guidelines for WatchPAT was to leverage its technologic advantages with methods that maintain its accuracy and diagnostic efficiency.”

The WatchPAT Scoring Guidelines were developed from a large patient sample in the COMPASS study at Johns Hopkins Sleep Center. The cohort included patients with comorbidities such as atrial fibrillation, morbid obesity, and heart failure. The Guidelines outline the physiologic background for the scoring approach, provide methodology for verifying, reviewing, and editing WatchPAT recordings with simple, step-by-step procedures for sleep clinicians and technologists.

Gilad Glick, CEO of Itamar Medical, says, “As a company dedicated to realizing the broad potential of PAT technology to improve the quality of healthcare, we recognize the importance of developing innovative solutions to real world clinical needs. The new WatchPAT Scoring Guidelines should facilitate the use of this powerful HSAT device, enabling the identification and treatment of OSA in a broad population while potentially significantly reducing cost to the healthcare system. We are grateful to the team at Johns Hopkins Sleep Center for their efforts and their rigorous approach and commitment to developing practical tools for helping underserved patient populations.”

Atul Malhotra, MD, division chief, pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine and director of Sleep Medicine at UC San Diego School of Medicine and David Rapoport, MD, director, sleep medicine research program at Icahn School of Medicine will co-chair the lunch symposium, which will be held June 5, 2018 12:30 pm in Room 308 of the Baltimore Convention Center. Additional symposium speakers and topics are:

  • The PAT Validation Literature; Richard Berry, MD, Medical Director, University of Florida Health Sleep Disorders Centers, Gainsville, FL
  • The JHS Study and Outcomes; Alan Schwartz, MD, Director, Sleep Disorders Center, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center
  • The JHS Scoring Guidelines; Hartmut Schneider, MD, PhD, Laboratory Director of the Johns Hopkins Bayview Sleep Disorders Center

A Q&A session and panel discussion with the speakers will take place following the presentations.