Elyria, Ohio Thwarted from buying its way into the sleep therapy market, Invacare Corp. last year tried it from scratch, manufacturing its first basic continuous-positive-airway-pressure system for February release.

Provider response to the Polaris has been "very positive," says Roy Neely, Invacare marketing manager of sleep therapy products. "Providers are already buying our other equipment," says Neely. "We were manufacturing other respiratory products, like oxygen concentrators and aerosol compressors, and we had a distribution arrangement with ResMed for CPAPs. It's a natural progression for us to be in the sleep therapy market. We've never been a company satisfied with just one product."

The company, which lost out to Respironics in the bidding to acquire Healthdyne Technologies, an established sleep-therapy product manufacturer, now intends to expand its line with higher-end products aimed at the sleep apnea market, Neely says. Those products will include more sophisticated noninvasive bi-level devices with rate-setting features. And he predicts many features will be devoted to capturing outcomes. -K.G.