Office of Research & Development |
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November 14, 2018
Photo: ©iStock/nicolesy
Obstructive sleep apnea is a serious sleep disorder in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts while a person is sleeping. To conclusively diagnose the condition, many people are referred to a center for a sleep study—a noninvasive, overnight exam that allows doctors to monitor you while you sleep to see what’s happening in your brain and body.
Many Veterans, however, live in rural areas far from the nearest sleep study center. Others have disabilities that keep them from traveling to such centers. To help them get a proper diagnosis and to manage their sleep apnea should they have the disease, VA researchers in San Diego, Atlanta, and Philadelphia have developed a web platform, called the Remote Veteran Apnea Management Platform (REVAMP).
REVAMP allows rural and other Veterans to be evaluated for sleep apnea without traveling to a VA sleep center. It provides them with access to their own treatment data. It also enables them to communicate directly with their health care provider via secure messaging and to see the progress they have made in dealing with the disorder. Care teams provide questionnaires to Veterans with sleep apnea that are answered and submitted directly through the application, allowing the teams to provide each Veteran with customized care.
REVAMP was launched in 2017 at 10 pilot sites and is expanding to 15 more sites in 2018. By 2019, researchers estimate, the program is on course to serve 270,000 Veterans at 135 VA medical centers. Currently, a Philadelphia VA physician is leading a randomized trial of REVAMP to assess the program’s effectiveness, outcomes, and costs.
Principal investigator: Dr. Samuel Kuna, Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center, Philadelphia
Selected publications:
REVAMP App for Veterans, VA Mobile Store
Remote Veteran Apnea Management Platform, VA Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion web feature, March 8, 2018
Remote Sleep Apnea Management, Clinical Trials.gov
Fields BG, Behari PP, McCloskey S, True G, Richardson D, Thomassson A, Korom-Djakovic D, Davies K, Kuna ST. Remote ambulatory management of Veterans with sleep apnea. Sleep, 2016 Mar 1;39(3):501-9.
