Comprehensive Sleep Care in Integrated Sleep Centers: William Noah, MD

“We integrate treatment. In other words, patients know that they're wearing continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines not just for sleep apnea, but to improve their blood pressure, their blood sugar, and to decrease the risk of heart attack.”

A recent study investigated adherence to positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy in patients with sleep apnea between those who received their machines from traditional durable medical equipment suppliers (DMEs) and those who received them as part of care from an integrated sleep practice (ISP). The study found that patients that worked with ISPs had better long-term adherence to PAP therapy than those who didn’t.

NeurologyLive was lucky enough to catch up with William Noah, MD, senior author of the study and the director and founder, Sleep Centers of Middle Tennessee, while he was snowed in and working at his farm, to learn more about the differences between ISPs and traditional DMEs in patient care. Noah discussed how patients receive more consistent, streamlined, and integrated care in ISPs than DMEs. 

Noah also outlined the advantages of patients being able to receive prescriptions and PAP machines quickly from the same center rather than going from a physician to a lab and then to a DME and back. He also stressed the importance of patients understanding all the conditions that can be improved by PAP therapy and that that understanding helps to establish PAP adherence.

REFERENCE

Andry JM, Tobin G, Shafin C, Noah W. Positive airway pressure therapy supplied by an integrated sleep practice associated with greater adherence among pre–Medicare-aged patients with sleep-disordered breathing. J Clin Sleep Med. 2021. 17(1):31-36. doi: 10.5664/jcsm.8786