Patients undergoing sleep studies typically turn up to their doctor with symptoms or fatigue, daytime tiredness, snoring, choking sensations, restless legs in the evenings, uncontrollable diabetes or high blood pressure just to name a few. The doctor refers them on for a sleep study, but is every sleep study the same?
Will the results be as reliable if I have a sleep study at home, or one in a hospital monitored by a technician or nurse? Should I just download an app for my phone? How well does that one night of recorded sleep represent usual sleep at home? Would there be a different result if a human analysed the study, or a computer, and would two humans come up with the same results?
Accuracy of testing is taken for granted when you have a procedure done and high standards do exist for accredited service providers however there are only limited legal requirements that non-accredited providers must adhere to.
Research has attempted to answer some of these questions and here at TSGQ we are conducting some research of our own, expanding on current literature of how sleep study analysis is performed using computerised assistance, to see if this has an impact on possibly improving the quality and reliability of the results while reducing wait times for patients to get their reports and see their Physician.
Stay tuned for the results !
