We’ve been talking about an S9 app interface on CPAPTalk.com. Preferably, this should be an open source initiative that would enable patients and patient advocates to better watch those for whom they are caring. Learn more about it in the video below.
[youtube_sc url=”http://youtu.be/W4qJq2ZM41Y” fs=”1″]
Currently ResTraxx is a commercial wifi adapter that is part of a patient monitoring system that is cloud-based, has membership fees and is geared toward the medical establishment. It’s seems unlikely that the regular patient will be granted access to this cloud-enabled interface.
With the current method, ResTraxx sends information ostensibly to my router, out to the web, to the ResMed Cloud Service, Back through the web, Back to my Router, and to my device for viewing. It also allows others with permissions to receive information through their router to their device. ResTraxx currently does not send your doctor or nurse an immediate mask-off or large leak notification. The system is designed only for downloading nightly data. It’s very unlikely that data are live.
A civic hacking alternative could offer a different method for storing and accessing data. Either the ResTraxx could be hacked to work with a local server, or a different hardware interface could be developed.
Ideally, data would be retrieved on the fly from the machine, sent through the router to an inexpensive, easily-available, open-sourceable local server, back to the router and pushed to a local wifi-enabled device. Optionally, data could also be pushed through the internet to a cloud server that would send information back through the internet to someone else’s router, and for them to view on their device. This could offer the best of both worlds.
Additionally, the system would be live, so that if there is a overlong apnea, large leak or the mask is off, a patient advocate or nurse receives a notification so immediate problems can be solved without having to check on a periodic basis that could wake the patient.
Looking at it another way all the devices necessary for alerts and review are kept in the same building. wifi adapter, router, server and computer or phone app can all function together without need for access an outside cloud if you don’t want. This could go a little further to preventing spying by some on the web. Alternatively if you want your doctor to have access, a cloud server could make the service available to preferred providers. The additional capability of posting a mini-chart on cpaptalk would be an awesome addition to the system.
Keeping a clould-based secure, credible patient-available medical database for thousands of patients could be a larger liability for a manufacturer than most are willing to deal with. By giving keys to the civic hacking community, it’s possible that we could create an open-source method to provide a much needed service that is locally secure and optionally internet-capable, perhaps sponsored by manufacturers, but run by a cooperative between manufacturers and civic hackers in the CPAP-user community.