GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (GE) and WideMed, Ltd. (WideMed), an Israel- based medical diagnostics company, announced an initiative to integrate WideMed's Morpheus Hx into a solution for the diagnosis of sleep apnea in cardiovascular inpatients. The intended seamless integration of sleep apnea measurement into the Holter workflow could provide an opportunity for diagnosis of sleep apnea in cardiovascular inpatients from existing bedside monitors.
“Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is highly prevalent among patients with cardiovascular disease, with an even higher incidence in patients with heart failure,” said Rami Khayat, Sleep Medicine, Pulmonary, Critical Care and Allergy specialist at the Davis Heart Lung Research Institute of Columbus, Ohio. “OSA is independently responsible for a significant increase in fatal and nonfatal cardiovascular events and treatment has been shown to reverse the negative cardiovascular consequences. An easy to use In-Patient diagnostics solution could provide a great opportunity for early identification and treatment of Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) in patients with cardiovascular disease.
“Development of a diagnostic solution for sleep apnea in acute cardiovascular patients could have great clinical potential,” said Matthias Weber, vice president and general manager of GE Healthcare’s global Diagnostic Cardiology business. “We’re pleased to enter into a relationship that aims to expand the clinical capabilities of our systems with new possibilities to enhance patient quality of care.”
Anya Eldan, chief executive officer of WideMed said, We are excited about this opportunity to work toward a solution to enable us to monitor each hospitalized patient for sleep apnea, a prevalent and under-diagnosed condition in cardiac patients. Increasing the inpatient sleep apnea diagnoses may enhance cardiac treatment outcomes.