Video Surveillance For Sleep Disorders

Why don't home studies include video surveillance?

Obviously I have more need than most to 'see' what is happening while I am sleeping but being able to observe positions and other responses or attitudes would surely be a beneficial diagnostic tool.

I understand there may be privacy issues but which part of a home study is not an invasion of privacy?

Is it just an issue of cost?

Or functionality? (not trusting the patient to set it up correctly)

Or current medical/legal definitions and requirements not being able to quantify it?

Or is it already out there and I'm too ignorant to realise it?

Good questions but I don't have any answers for you. My best guess is insurance doesn't see the need so won't pay, privacy issues (once it is video-taped what happens to the video?), and setting it up correctly. Just guesses.

Perhaps it is the cost of labour to pay someone to watch someone sleeping for 7 hours? I suppose you could watch it in fast forward and same some money...

All good guesses Ruby but we don't all live in the great USofA and in this tiny corner of the world insurance doesn't rule supreme ..... yet.

Once you raise the subject of insurance, work or licenses with all the issues of compliance nobody in their right mind would want cameras in their bedroom but we 'other world' dwellers haven't fully embraced those methods yet.

Home studies here are generally paid for by the patient so it would just be a matter of a bit more money. At least double would be my guess because of the equipment as well as the extra time taken to generate a report.

Even so, double the current rate would still be only a fraction of what a clinic based sleep study would cost.

All patient info is supposed to be private but I wonder how many patients would object anyway because who wants a complete stranger seeing those pink satin sheets and what about that cobweb in the far corner and what will he/she think of those batman pyjamas the kids bought for me and of course the most important problem of all, I simply don't know what to do with my hair! :O

Which brings us back to the logistics of it. Can you demonstrate the system clearly enough in a busy pharmacy to ensure that a confused, sleep deprived customer will be able to take it all home and set it up effectively?

It might boost home study sales if they also sold linen and pyjamas. :)

There might be a compliance issue with a difference here.

If the Pharmacy contracts somebody to process the data and generate a report and they are required to view the video footage how does the pharmacy protect them from potential trauma?

There would need to be rules and restrictions for the patients and, for those inadvertent moments, some insurance.

So maybe it really is an insurance issue after all.