Improved Diagnosis Will Reduce Cost of Sleep Disorders

The direct cost of sleep disorders on the Australian heath system has been estimated at US$34 million dollars a year. Indirect costs of sleep disorders are also high due to, e.g., through road and work accidents.

Griffith University (Queensland, Australia), has been working with Queensland Health (Brisbane, Australia) and the University of Southern Queensland (USQ, Springfield, Australia) to reduce the cost of sleep disorders. Senior lecturer in management at Griffith, Dr Kerr said, Often general practitioners do not have enough information or are not well equipped to deal with the diagnosis of sleep disorders, so they err on the side of caution and refer patients to sleep centers. Health departments spend approximately $257 per night at sleep centers diagnosing patients, which is a costly exercise and ties up valuable resources--particularly as many of these referrals are unnecessary.

Dr Kerr said that his team is working on a project to develop a more effective system of diagnosing sleep disorders. They are investigating and developing a web-based intelligent decision support system to provide a cost-effective solution to this problem. This will help determine if a night at the sleep center is necessary; sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea, periodic limb movement disorder, and associated conditions will be identified.

Patients will be able to enter their information at home, allowing specialists to conduct a preliminary diagnosis and develop a database for follow-up consultations. Hospitals and sleep centers will be equipped with the software for people without access to the Internet at home.


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