Remotely attended home monitoring of sleep disorders.

This research assessed the feasibility of homemonitoring of sleep disorders using small wireless technologies. There are many different types of sleep disorders that affect over 40 million patients. Sleep diagnosis is typically done in a laboratory where patients are asked to stay overnight, during which time various types of physiological signals are recorded. A more attractive alternative to in-lab testing is to evaluate patients in their own homes. In addition to convenience, the home environment is more conducive for natural sleep, which allows a true capture of disease symptoms. We describe a new easily deployable home monitor that will permit complete sleep evaluation in the patients' homes under direct remote supervision of a sleep specialist. The new technology, PSG@Home, consists of a 14-channel wearable wireless monitor and a cell phone-based Gateway to transfer data, including video, in real-time from the patient's home to a remote laboratory. Similar to in-lab recordings, data can be monitored and scored in real-time. The technology was tested on 10 fibromyalgia (FM) patients, whose constant pain has previously made them reluctant to travel to a sleep lab. All 10 studies were successful and generated high-fidelity recordings. One study experienced intermittent real-time data transmission due to sparse cellular coverage, but the data were recovered from a backup memory housed inside the patient monitor. No disconnections in sensor lead wires occurred. A new enabling home telehealth technology for real-time sleep disorders monitoring was developed and tested with encouraging preliminary results. The sample size is too small to derive any clinical conclusions about the sleep quality of FM patients. However, this study validates the underlying technology and demonstrates the role of new wireless technologies in the future of sleep disorders diagnosis.