THE DREAM OF A GOOD NIGHT’S REST
Many people suffer from sleep apnoea without even knowing it, creating potentially serious health problems
As more than 100 million people worldwide suffer from sleep apnoea, many of them undiagnosed, it has become a health concern, with the annual World Sleep Day raising awareness and calling for action on sleep-related issues.
Dutch technology company Royal Philips is also on board, opening Southeast Asia’s first Sleep and Respiratory Education Center three days before World Sleep Day 2018, which fell on March 16 — the Friday before spring equinox.
Located within the Philips Apac Center in Singapore, the medical-education centre aims to train healthcare professionals across the region to better diagnose and treat sleep disorders.
Last August, Philips signed an MOU with SingHealth to collaborate on providing integrated quality patient care, clinical education and research efforts, as well as to increase public awareness of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA), which affects one in three Singaporeans according to a recent study.
“OSA is caused by the repeated collapse of a sufferer’s airway, leading to low oxygen levels and disrupted sleep,” said Dr Mok Ying Juan, director of public education and epidemiology at SingHealth Duke-NUS Sleep Center.
“It can cause daytime tiredness, poor work and school performance, and
more serious heart problems. Unfortunately, many cases of OSA in Singapore remain undiagnosed, and more needs to be done to increase public awareness of this condition so that people are guided towards effective treatment of their condition.”
OSA can be diagnosed by interpreting data from home sleep tests and in-laboratory sleep studies, which is one of the training topics at Philips’ Sleep and Respiratory Education Center.
The 102m² facility has a life-size mock-up of a patient’s bedroom for sleep observation and a monitoring room, where sleep technicians score and analyse sleep data.
The training and interaction room is where the sleep data and recordings are interpreted to identify abnormal sleep patterns, such as limb movement, rapid eye movement and respiratory effort, to better understand the diagnosis of sleep disorders.
At the opening event, Philips launched a series of complimentary peer-to-peer training programmes
that, besides diagnostic knowledge, will upskill physicians in the latest sleep and respiratory therapy technologies.
“Our centre aims to provide bestin-class education and training from the world’s leading sleep specialists for healthcare professionals across the region to address the current gap in sleep-qualified professionals in Southeast Asia, so that timely diagnosis and treatment can be provided to people who suffer from sleep disorders,” said Ivy Lai, country manager of Philips Singapore.
The latest sleep and respiratory therapy technologies used for training and demonstration at the centre include the Philips Alice Night One home sleeping test and DreamStation positive airway pressure sleep therapy devices, as well as nasal, full-face and pillow masks.
“Sleep health is an important yet often forgotten pillar of health and well-being,” said Lai. “With the technologies available today, and advances in home testing, we aim to make it more accessible for people who suffer from sleep disorders to seek professional help.”
Sleep apnoea is caused by the repeated collapse of a sufferer’s airway, leading to low oxygen levels and disrupted sleep