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I said some things about the patient's perspective on OSA diagnosis, treatment and follow-up that were controversial to my audience of sleep technologists and respiratory therapists seeking the new Clinical Sleep Educator credential.  Starting this thread to invite anyone to comment, positive or negative on what I said and your reaction to it.

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HI Mike ,

               Did you talk about patients knowing their numbers??? Good Sleep,Chris

I was at the Clinical Sleep Educator at Focus, and I found your presentation to be very informative and enjoyable.  I think alot of times physicians (and some techs as well) think they know what is best for the patient and do not see the patient as an individual, but rather as a classification of people  (which I feel is the way you were initially stereotyped).  Hopefully, your presentation has opened some eyes!!!!

 

What did you say? Will you be in Vegas? I will.

Thanks! Chris and Rock, I spoke about my personal "journey" with Sleep Apnea, meaning how I was able to become fully "compliant" and achieve success despite coming into a medical system where the odds were stacked against me.  It's an important story given how many people have OSA, but how few are actually doing something about it, let alone having successful outcomes.

Robin Rohlfing RPSGT said:

I was at the Clinical Sleep Educator at Focus, and I found your presentation to be very informative and enjoyable.  I think alot of times physicians (and some techs as well) think they know what is best for the patient and do not see the patient as an individual, but rather as a classification of people  (which I feel is the way you were initially stereotyped).  Hopefully, your presentation has opened some eyes!!!!

 

Mike can you post a little more about what the techs found controversial?  It is a shame that more techs/DME's/doctors seem to ignore the patient and how their treatment affects them 

 

I'd be interested in hearing more about what you said, Mike.  If you pointed out the dismal figures on compliance and  lay the blame at their feet where it belongs, I imagine they would  find your comments controversial.  The medical community should be giving much more support to CPAP users.  In fact I think each sleep doctor's office should have a person, even part time, who would check in weekly with new users and help them with problems.  The tech who did my sleep study feels the information on these forums is dangerous because we teach people to take control of their therapy.  Well, if someone from the office was available to us to deal with problems in the beginning I don't believe as many machines would end up in the closet.  He's  not available to me to deal with problems, I have to make an appointment with the doctor.  When you do call the DME for help with mask fitting  from what I hear they are not very helpful.  I was lucky to have a great RT.  My doctor is surprised by my 100% compliance which is mostly due to the support from this forum.There are so many things a layperson could do to help make therapy more comfortable- dealing with ramp and flex for more comfort are two.

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