CPAP machines of the future

[Sleeprider]

Clock - What Big Guy said. Simple digital clocks are included in all sorts of devices and appliances (eg microwave ovens). It's not the prime purpose of the device, it is a convenience for the user.

Size & shape - there will be a limit on how small you can make the unit without compromising on some other aspect of its operation. 300 ml of water is always going to occupy 300 ml. Smaller air chambers and fans imply faster gas velocities which are less efficient and noisier.

I think a visible clock that is easy to set with surface controls for H and M, and is not coupled to the therapy device time, would finally get people out of the settings to change the CPAP time.  This would actually prevent a lot of user-errors in the therapy menu. My main requirement is that it can be blacked out or set to a dimmed setting of the user's choice.

[SarcasticDave94]

OK, in that context as Sleeprider presented, as in so we don't deal with the hard task of resetting the CPAP just to conform to Daylight Saving Time jumps. I don't bother to adjust the system time at all, but for those that do, I think it's really a great idea. A big yes on not overly bright displays for both the machine itself and that clock. I'd like manual adjustments not just an auto setting. Let's not do the overly bright retina burning display default thing. We are trying to sleep.

[arhdc]

There already is a machine that does all CPAP modes and more...Look up a Resmed Lumis TX.


Manufacturers will always want to charge for more complex mode machines, this is where they make the money. Maybe they start making them all mode and you pay to unlock higher-level features. This is already done with things like commercial firewall routers from companies like Cisco.

[Stom]

Consumer priced integrated pulse/ox and actigraphy sleep tracking. One of the Chinese ResMed knock offs already offers integration with pulse ox, it's time for ResMed to offer a consumer priced option, not just their $900 clinical option.

[mjphyi]

As a pessimist, I would expect a future generation of CPAP machines to drop the SD Card facility, and use only the sim card derived data transmission.

The ability to make local setting changes could also go, then being done remotely only. If it could be done locally, the access to the clinician menu will become way more sophisticated than just pushing 2 buttons at once.

[holden4th]

As a pessimist, I would expect a future generation of CPAP machines to drop the SD Card facility, and use only the sim card derived data transmission.

The ability to make local setting changes could also go, then being done remotely only. If it could be done locally, the access to the clinician menu will become way more sophisticated than just pushing 2 buttons at once.

I occasionally like to check my SD card to see if there are any issues so I would want the abilty to check my data myself. As my machines are self funded I don't have any need for data reporting to go to an outside source.

[unidee]

I like wifi or bluetooth connections to my computer. However, they always contain security vulnerabilities!

I hope that doctors and hospitals have servers to them sleep information will be transferred over a 2G network. Works already now. The servers could have robots that would adjust the settings of the device whenever they notice poor results. This could even happen overnight! Big settings changes could be informative, which people would then make adjustments to. People would notice if any adjustments were wrong.

Those robots would save staff resources. There is a shortage of them, at least in Finland.

[DeepBreathing]

You don't need remote "robots" to make adjustments on the fly. The intelligence could easily be built into the machine so that there is no need to connect to a server except for reporting purposes.

We must also remember that not everybody lives in dense urban areas with excellent phone and internet coverage. The machines must retain some ability for reports and settings to be done locally. I suspect we'll see a premium price on machines with SD cards, else the cards will be replaced by Bluetooth and a phone app.

[unidee]

My friends want 12 volt connection for power supply. So, it could be used easily with car battery or cheap battery without car.

[unidee]

You don't need remote "robots" to make adjustments on the fly. The intelligence could easily be built into the machine so that there is no need to connect to a server except for reporting purposes.

Good point.