04-13-2023, 09:26 PM
How to take OSCAR data to my sleep doctor?
Hi Folks,
New to this board, so my apologies if this question has been asked and answered before; if so, I'd appreciate someone pointing me to that answer.
Anyway, I've recently been referred to a sleep doctor, and in preparation I bought a Wellue O2 Pulse Oximeter and I've been importing its data into OSCAR. It produces great graphs, but I don't understand how I'm supposed to take or present this data to the sleep doctor. I did print out the Statistics page and downloaded screen prints of a few nights data and printed to pdfs for my primary care doctor, but this will obviously not scale to weeks of data.
I understand that many sleep doctors also use OSCAR, so how do people take their data to them? Since OSCAR doesn't have a tablet version, should I just take my laptop to the doctor? I tried the export csv option, but when I imported the data into Excel, I just ended up with a big mess. Any help would be much appreciated!
Thanks,
Anthony
RE: How to take OSCAR data to my sleep doctor?
Hi pugsley13. You have come to a great place.
For myself, I usually just print out the image file of the screen shots I have taken. It can be a lot of pages but I try to organize them in a notebook to take with me. If someone has a better idea or way I'd be interested.
Again, welcome.
 WARNING: It may take a while to sink in...I tend to get befuddled at times.
RE: How to take OSCAR data to my sleep doctor?
Pugsley, you will need to summarize your concerns for your doctor, and if any Oscar screenshots support your concerns, a print-out might help. If you actually expect a doctor to take your data and analyze it, you will be invariably disappointed. He is concerned with your use of PAP, the efficacy as indicated by your AHI and your comfort and how you feel using the therapy. Your Oscar data can be used on this forum to ask questions, or explore issues you may want to followup on with your doctor. If something from your data seems noteworthy, we can help you to present it. Use the forum as practice for how you wish to present problems or successes with your doctor. We can help you to better understand any issues and develop a more effective discussion. It seems for now, you are only using the oximeter, and I assume you may be concerned about periods where it seems your SpO2 dips. Your doctor may be interested in that, but most likely will ask you to take a home test or clinical sleep test to measure any sleep disordered breathing as well as record sleep oximetry, then prepare a treatment plan based on those results.
RE: How to take OSCAR data to my sleep doctor?
My sleep doctor knows I use OSCAR and has no problems with it. When I see him every 6 months, I have a printout of the summary report under the statistics tab. He is very happy with that as it gives him a snapshot and history of my therapy. I usually print out a standard and a monthly.
Homer
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RE: How to take OSCAR data to my sleep doctor?
(04-14-2023, 12:22 PM)Homerec130 Wrote: My sleep doctor knows I use OSCAR and has no problems with it. When I see him every 6 months, I have a printout of the summary report under the statistics tab. He is very happy with that as it gives him a snapshot and history of my therapy. I usually print out a standard and a monthly.
TIL about the monthly report - thanks! I guess I'm a little confused though - if OSCAR is not for sharing with your doctor, what is its purpose? What do people do with all the data it reports?
RE: How to take OSCAR data to my sleep doctor?
Most of the people on this forum use OSCAR data to tweak our settings, with the help of the knowledgeable people here.
Those of us who help others use OSCAR to read and present the data on the SD card to improve your therapy. Be it directly to you or helping you understand it to talk to your doctor. Unfortunately very few doctors ever look at any detailed data so those doctors really don't understand what specifically is going on. This means they never look for flow limits which are driving up your pressure. Your pressure is going up but AHI isn't, let's just increase pressure.
Your AHI is high and your pressure is thru the roof. The problem is you are actually tucking your chin and blocking your airway. Docs solution, AHI is high so raise pressure "easily" determined by looking at your summary data. Our solution is to look at the daily charts and at a glance we see your obstructive events are clustered together. We work with you to change your head position maybe a pillow modification or the soft cervical collar. Yes raising pressure may work,bit does every once in a while.
One of the things we typically do here at apnea board is to base our suggestions on data, not our guess, educated or otherwise.
RE: How to take OSCAR data to my sleep doctor?
Understood, thanks.
RE: How to take OSCAR data to my sleep doctor?
What to take to your doctor.
1. Your agenda, have a plan
2. Charts that illustrate your issue, go over 1 or 2 in detail then lay down a series saying that that happens frequently,. Quickly showing quantity. Offer to let him go thru them, even show that you have a PC occasional good night.
3. I have all this on my laptop so we can look at any night and any detail you wish. You set that up before the doc walks in.
How will that work? Any thing from agreement to you don't have xx years of medical school so you can't know anything.
Final question is how can WE accomplish this.
05-17-2023, 08:17 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-17-2023, 08:19 PM by Pugsley13.)
RE: How to take OSCAR data to my sleep doctor?
Just a FYI, to close the loop. Took the Oscar summary data to my sleep doctor. She looked at it and ordered a two night at-home sleep test, which confirmed severe obstructive sleep apnea (AHI of 34). The at-home sleep test equipment was quite similar to the Wellue O2 Pulse Oximeter I was using, so wasn't hard to wear and gave similar results (e.g. minimum SpO2 84%). Waiting now for my follow up appointment and hopiing that she will give me a Rx for a CPAP machine, which will hopefully perform some sort of miracle - I'm really tired of always feeling tired!
BTW, she also said that I won't need the oximeter anymore, so I returned it to Amazon. But then reading about some potential CPAP machines, I noticed that they don't actually monitor SpO2 levels, so how do you know whether they're actually working? Ended up reordering the Wellue unit from their website, with a big discount for Mother's Day. Also, assuming I get a Rx, I'm looking at getting the RedMed AirSense 11 - I thought that it might be better to get the older and more mature AirSense 10, but that doesn't seem to widely available anymore. Would appreciate any thoughts from anyone.
In any case, I'm sure I'll be back on this Forum - many thanks for all the help so far!
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