The success of MyApnea.Org lies in the breadth and diversity of its membership. The key message to pass along to patients is that it is now easier than ever for patients with sleep apnea to play an active role not only their health care but in the research that is driving the decisions behind their health care. This is ever so important in the area of sleep health where the persisting gaps in knowledge are a significant determent to equitable health. MyApnea.Org already has enrolled more than 4,500 members in this national effort. We encourage clinicians to refer patients with sleep apnea to join the patient-powered research network MyApnea.Org and to remind them that their data have the power to move the dial in sleep health. Similarly, we encourage clinicians and researchers to consider using the data provided within MyApnea.Org for future investigations.
Dr. Kontos is Instructor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and an Associate Scientist at Brigham and Woman’s Hospital; Dr. Redline is Peter C Farrell Professor of Sleep Medicine - Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston.
Editor’s comments: Precision medicine is a major initiative recently espoused by President Obama and members of the scientific and medical communities that offers the hope of improved categorization of disease, diagnostic modalities, and therapeutic options for each patient as an individual.
Dr. Jeremy Weingarten
As defined by the White House fact sheet, precision medicine is “an innovative approach to disease prevention and treatment that takes into account individual differences in people’s genes, environments, and lifestyles” providing “clinicians tools to better understand the complex mechanisms underlying a patient’s health, disease, or condition, and to better predict which treatments will be most effective.” (www.whitehouse.gov) Obstructive sleep apnea is ripe for closer scrutiny in the spirit of precision medicine. Pathophysiologic mechanisms of sleep apnea, which include anatomic and nonanatomic features, vary among individual patients (Eckert et al. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2013;188[8]:996. Accordingly, treatment modalities vary in effectiveness among individuals, resulting in a push to investigate novel treatments such as hypoglossal nerve stimulation (Strollo et al. N Engl J Med. 2014;370[2]:139). Myapnea.org, as described by Drs. Kontos and Redline, is a potential game changer in its grassroots approach to the collection of big data to further the evaluation and management of sleep apnea. Patients and practitioners are encouraged to join the network and contribute to furthering precision medicine within the sleep community.