title: Telehealth-based framework for supporting the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea.
abstract: We describe an application of a computer-based system and telehealth approach for support of the continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). A conceptual framework is introduced that has four major components: patients' education and communication, measurement of patients' adherence, CPAP unit test, and CPAP treatment evaluation. The measurement and evaluation processes are based on a fuzzy logic approach and they use a set of predefined fuzzy rules. The rules are utilized for the calculation of patient's adherence and treatment effectiveness using patients' records, self-reported adherence data, and automatically downloaded data from the CPAP machines. Further, we discuss the need for a telehealth support system for OSA patients in the rural communities and small cities of British Columbia.
authors.affiliation: Department of Computing Science, Thompson Rivers University, Canada. mkwiatkowska@tru.ca
authors.forename: Mila
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kwiatkowska
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Idzikowski
authors.forename: Les
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Matthews
mesh_terms: D001955:British Columbia; D045422:Continuous Positive Airway Pressure; D006801:Humans; D020181:Sleep Apnea, Obstructive / Q000628:therapy*; D017216:Telemedicine