A recent report from Frost and Sullivan on the sleep diagnostic market suggests that the makers of digital health sleep devices have reason to be optimistic.
“If you’re talking about the current market, the focus is shifting toward home testing,” Healthcare Research Analyst Akanksha Joshi commented to MobiHealthNews. If we compare Europe and the US, Europe has been more accepting of home testing, but usage is increasing in the U.S. There’s a higher percentage of people accessing home sleep testing now, and it will grow in the coming years.
In Europe, 49 percent of the market is home sleep testing and 51 percent in-clinic. In the US, the breakdown was 30 percent home and 70 percent clinical. Increased connectivity and a greater demand for care is driving the market.
People are becoming more aware of the importance of sleep health, and an increased awareness to have sleep patterns checked. There is a growing awareness from people that a lack of sleep can create many kinds of health related problems. There is quite a range of patient-friendly sleep testing devices and some people prefer to have a sleep test at home, because it’s more comfortable, and costs less out of pocket. The reimbursement available is adequate, it’s patient-friendly, cost-effective, and people are willing to test.
Digital sleep tracking devices have been written about before. MyZeo a well funded consumer sleep tracking company folded last year, but many similar devices are currently available online and smartphone app-enabled devices are more for general sleep health monitoring than specifically for a clinical sleep disorder diagnosis.
Since Zeo shut down, new contenders in the sleep tracking space have emerged. Beddit, a company tracking sleep with sensors that strap to the users bed, had a successful Indiegogo campaign and began selling its product recently. IntelliClinic, raised $400,000 for a smart sleep mask called NeuroOn, meant to measure and improve the user’s sleep. In January, SleepRate launched an app-based sleep system using cognitive behavioral strategies licensed from Stanford University’s School of Medicine, Psychiatry, and Behavioral Sciences. Finally, sleep tracker maker Bam Labs teamed up with smart bed maker Sleep Number to create a bed with a table interface.
Wearables that self-monitor consumer sleep habits will continue to increase in usage. Companies, such as Lark, Fitbit, Jawbone have all touted their sleep-tracking features. Since Zeo shut down, the question is whether the consumer market is ready for sleep tracking — whether it could ever scale to mass market acceptance. But Joshi, thinks that as the market for prescribed, clinical sleep testing grows, the market for consumer sleep tracking will rise with the tide.
Source: MobiHealth