I am currently looking at the referral process for the sleep service at my Trust. As part of an innovation project I am aiming to introduce a preventative medicine approach which encourages weight loss during the waiting time between referral from primary care to the sleep clinic and the initiation of CPAP treatment.
CPAP treatment carries a significant environmental cost from the use of the machine to the supply of consumables and therefore, for every patient who can reverse the need for treatment through weight loss, there is the potential for sustainability savings.
Does anyone have any experience of a similar process they would be willing to share? All ideas gratefully received!
Many thanks.
Hi Maddie, this sounds like a fantastic idea, one of those that is win-win-win (for patient wellbeing, the NHS's/country's finances, and the planet). I don't have any experience, but there was a recent meta-analysis and accompanying editorial calling for research into just this; https://academic.oup.com/sleep/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/sle…
and
https://academic.oup.com/sleep/advance-article/doi/10.1093/sleep/zsae22….
It was also covered/summarised in this article in the Limbic (https://thelimbic.com/uk/respiratory/time-for-action-on-osa-prevention-…).
The Limbic also covered a trial of GLP-1 agonist in patients with OSA and obesity; https://thelimbic.com/uk/respiratory/gip-glp-1ra-effective-in-sleep-apn….
If you don't have access to the limbic let me know and I can email you the PDFs.
Sorry I don't have any actual experience to offer, but it sounds like a fantastic triple-win idea, and an area that there is research interest in, so hopefully there are some ideas emerging. Good luck with it, and please do update the network with your progress!
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