Q&A: ResMed's cloud-based solutions for respiratory disease

Antoine Valterio, UK and Ireland country manager, took some time out to answer some questions from Med-Tech Innovation News about ResMed, which has developed cloud-based remote monitoring software for ventilators, among other devices.

Tell us more about ResMed, when did it start and when did it go digital?

At ResMed, we create innovative solutions for people with sleep apnoea and other respiratory diseases including Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), helping to treat and keep people out of the hospitals and empowering them to live healthier, higher-quality lives. We operate in 140 countries across the world and develop cloud-connected medical devices to help transform care in the home or the care setting of choice.

Our story begins in 1981, when Professor Colin Sullivan and colleagues at the University of Sydney developed Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP), a successful non-invasive treatment for obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA). Fast forward eight years, Dr Peter Farrell founded ResMed and bought Sullivan’s sleep technology, commercialising his prototype CPAP device and bringing the device to the mainstream market, which led to ResMed as we know it today.

Our devices went digital in 2014, optimising our offering and giving greater freedom and flexibility to patients and caregivers alike. Utilising cloud-connected technology and enabling remote care pathways help to relieve pressure on care systems through software platforms. These platforms allow remote monitoring and effective management of symptoms and conditions which can be responded to in real time, without the need for in-person appointments or prolonged stays in hospital. By enabling better care, we improve quality of life, reduce the impact of chronic disease, and lower costs for our healthcare systems.

Tell us about the technology behind the devices. What does it need to work properly?

ResMed’s innovative technology that underlies its software platforms benefits patients, as well as healthcare professionals. myAir is designed to motivate patients by tracking their sleep data and coaching them through a personalised programme tailored to their specific needs and sleep patterns. The technology it employs empowers patients to track and understand their therapy, receive daily and periodical reports, and consult educational and self-help tools and videos for additional support.

Research shows that patients using the myAir software platform significantly improve in their daily CPAP usage and adherence to sleep therapy. This software is complemented by technology designed for healthcare professionals—AirView—which, when used in conjunction with myAir, boosts patient compliance by 87%. Described briefly, AirView is a securely hosted, cloud-based platform that serves as a patient management system and allows healthcare providers to remotely track patients’ progress and quickly identify and resolve issues. While the devices we develop at ResMed have auto-adjusting features with algorithms that allow for additional customisation of sleep apnoea therapy, AirView also allows physicians to troubleshoot devices or change device settings remotely. This is made possible by ResMed’s sleep and respiratory care devices’ built-in wireless connectivity that transmits data and therapy statistics from devices enabled with myAir to AirView which displays the information in reader-friendly graphics.

Recently, the insights and benefits of AirView for sleep therapy have been applied to ventilated patients; this has been launched as AirView for Ventilation, which is one of our most recent initiatives in respiratory care services.

How does the cloud-connected technology work in relation to ventilators and what has the effect been during COVID-19?

We have leveraged our cloud-connected technology which we have developed in our sleep apnoea solutions and built upon it to assist healthcare professionals in their care provision to ventilated patients. With AirView, clinicians can remotely monitor their patients’ respiratory rate and blood oxygen saturation to track changes in their condition, enabling remote care for long-term ventilator users. The platform can work via a connectivity module with any Stellar or Astral ventilator in Europe, and Lumis bilevel devices have a built-in AirView connection. When it comes to our respiratory care devices, AirView also allows clinicians to change some device settings remotely.

We have also used technology to leverage our expertise and collective knowledge during the crisis, offering ongoing advice and ventilation training to healthcare professionals through virtual tools, and have made available a comprehensive set of resources on our dedicated COVID-19 microsite.

Our AirView ecosystem has over 13 million patients and holds more than six billion nights of sleep and respiratory medical data in the cloud, with these figures continuing to increase, especially as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. With social distancing measures in place across the globe in response to COVID-19, we accelerated the launch of AirView for Ventilation in Europe by several months to help clinicians remotely monitor ventilated patients in their home and offer an extra layer of safety between the care provider and patient.

With AirView, do you feel remote monitoring is here to stay and could be equipped to deal with respiratory conditions beyond COVID-19?

We have seen digitally-enabled healthcare pathways take centre stage in the fight against COVID-19, accelerated by the NHS’s adoption of digital health technologies such as those offered by ResMed which enable out-of-hospital care for patients, optimise services and improve patient outcomes. 

As we continue to battle the virus and adhere to social distancing requirements, remote monitoring will certainly continue to be a vital service in improving patient lives and keeping patients safe. Beyond COVID-19, its likely adoption will continue to increase as more realise the benefits of tele-monitoring and see first-hand how it helps alleviate pressure on a busier than ever health system which is getting back to normal capacity.

Many conditions and elective procedures have been put on hold as a result of the pandemic, creating a backlog of appointments, diagnoses and treatments. As the NHS looks to clear this queue and recover from the pandemic, remote monitoring and the digitalisation of healthcare services will become ever more crucial to help ease the burden, reduce costs and avoid unnecessary in-person appointments. The NHS Long-Term Plan also reflects a push towards technology-enabled models of care and digitised services, so we are confident that the move to digital solutions in healthcare will continue. The adoption and scale of connected devices, cloud-based capabilities, data-insights and remote monitoring energise clinical care, spread innovation, improve patients’ quality of life and generate economic value across the NHS.

Does ResMed also work with devices beyond ventilators?

Yes, we offer a comprehensive range of devices, products and digital solutions beyond ventilation, for people with OSA, COPD and other chronic diseases. This range includes devices such as AirSense and an array of masks, which are supported by digital platforms such as myAir and AirView for patients and healthcare professionals, respectively. Our sleep apnoea machines are suitable for people with a variety of sleep-disordered breathing and also include a compact device, the AirMini, for travel, which allow patients to benefit from CPAP therapy at home or on the move. Another innovation, but which pertains to respiratory care, is that of Propeller Health which enables physicians to remotely monitor patients with asthma and COPD and to treat them through the use of connectivity, analytics and companion digital devices.

In addition to our cloud-connected devices and digital solutions, our portfolio is dedicated to support professionals and patients in out-of-hospital care settings. To that end, some of our newly launched initiatives include ‘Connected Services’ which encompass numerous services such as facilitating and conducting fully remote sleep studies to test patients for OSA using our ApneaLink Air. Another service is ReSupply which facilitates an annual automated delivery of consumables from ResMed directly to patients.

Together, our extensive and diversified products, solutions, and services offer support to healthcare providers and patients through every stage of sleep and respiratory care therapy.

Anything else to add?

To be a small part of the monumental global fight against COVID-19 has been extremely rewarding, and we’ve been honoured to work alongside frontline workers, the UK Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the NHS, as well as groups including the ABHI who have been instrumental in representing health technology manufacturers in front of UK government stakeholders. Having recently joined the ABHI Board, I look forward to working closely with healthtech Industry leaders across the UK and being part of their efforts to provide the NHS with innovative medical technologies and innovations that help patient care become easier and more efficient. We, at ResMed, are dedicated to improving people’s quality of life through our continued innovations, products, services and digital healthcare solutions and through supporting the NHS and healthcare professionals in their treatment of patients with sleep apnoea and respiratory diseases.