Who do Resmed and PR think the customers are?

Something posted over at cpaptalk.com today got me thinking about this issue yet again. It's commonly assumed over there that CPAP manufacturers think of the DMEs as their customers instead of us. And given how the manufacturers keep making dataless bricks that record nothing but compliance data and the facts that Resmed quit selling ResScan to patients several years ago and that PR still has not yet updated EncoreViewer to a version that cleanly installs and is supported on 64-bit PCs, it's easy to see why so many of us hoseheads come to believe that the manufacturers care more about pleasing the DMEs (and their bottom lines) instead of us, the hoseheads, and our comfort at night and the quality of our therapy.

And I've come to the conclusion that the CPAP manufacturers could learn a lot from the Scooter-chair makers, the diabetes supplies makers, blood pressure monitor makers, and many drug companies, all of whom market their equipment/drugs directly to the patient.

Imagine what would happen if the PAP manufacturers would figure out a way of running a really clever multi-media advertising campaign aimed at the large mass of folks walking around with undiagnosed OSA and manage at the same time to reduce the substantial negative stigma that is attached to both OSA and the very idea of sleeping with a PAP machine: The number of folks being willing to get tested would go up, the number of people accepting the challenge of making this therapy work would go up, and ultimately, the likelyhood of folks actually using the machines as intended would go up, and the companies' profits would go up.

And just what would that advertising campaign need to make use of? People in control of their OSA instead of OSA destroying their lives. And that would, naturally, include people knowing and understanding the efficacy data among many other things:

Hi, I'm RobySue and I have OSA. WIthout CPAP my AHI was 23.4 and I woke up tired and in pain and listless most days. But with the help of this marvelous S9*, my AHI stays between 1.0 and 2.0. And I've got so much more energy these days---energy to do the things that I simply wasn't able to do before, like climbing this wonderful mountain here in the background or dancing in the disco with my hubby or enthusiastically playing with my puppies in the park .....

And the voice over then saying something to the effect of,

If you wake up feeling unrefreshed most mornings, have morning headaches, excessive daytime sleepiness and fatigue, or snore, you may have OSA, ask your doctor about OSA. And if you are diagnosed with OSA, be sure to ask for a Resmed S9 machine to treat your OSA. Our machines are quiet and easy to use with features that matter most to OSA sufferers as heated humidification; the ClimateLine hose---a heated hose that provides state of the art protection from condensation; our pattened EPR system to make exhaling easy and breathing with the machine natural; full leak data so you can proactively deal with any leak issues; full efficacy data so you know your OSA is under control night after night; and a user friendly software system for fully monitoring your condition. So you can get on with the business of living your life to the fullest.

* NOTE: I tried to write this for the PR System One that I now use since I really do find the PR System One BiPAP much more comfortable to sleep with night after night than I did the S9 AutoSet. But "full leak data" just ain't there, even with Encore Viewer: I've been using the S1 BiPAP for close to 10 months now. And I still have only the foggiest notion of what actually triggers a "Large Leak" because in my particular situation, a "Large Leak" is all but impossible to trigger no matter how badly I'm leaking.

When the DME was testing my machine to see if there was something wrong with it, they were able to "duplicate" a Large Leak that topped out at just over 80 L/min.

In actual use? In 10 months of use, I have had one large leak flagged in use: Back in June, I did have a total leak that hit 60 L/min for 2 minutes that got flagged as a Large Leak. At my range of pressure settings, my intentional leak is 20--29 L/min; so that 60 L/min figure represents an unintentional leak of somewhere between 30 and 40 L/min. Moreover, this two minute horrendous leak was in the middle of a very bad 50 minute period where the total leak rate steadily and rapidly increased from about 20 L/min (baseline) to about 50 L/min in a ten minute period, then bounced up to 60 L/min for two minutes, and then settled back in at the very elevated (for me) level of 35-45 L/min for 40 more minutes before I woke up, turned the machine off, fixed the leak and turned the machine back on. During that whole 50 minute period, there's at least 10-15 minutes where the total leak rate is at or above 45 L/min, which is 25 L/min above my normal baseline of about 20 L/min. If a similar leak had happened when I was using the S9, it looks to me like about 20--25 minutes of that nasty leak would have been over the infamous RedLine at 24 L/min for unintentional leaks, with a sizable chunk of the rest of it just below the RedLine. Not enough to trigger a visit from Mr. Red Frowny Face; but evidence in ResScan that the leak was long and significant.