A Dream Market

If you are not currently participating in the sleep market, you are most likely considering the prospect. There is good reason: The market is growing at approximately 20 percent annually, and opportunities abound for respiratory providers who offer clinically sound and efficiently run programs.

“The sleep market is one of the areas that is growing faster than any other area,” says Bob Messenger, RRT, Invacare's clinical manager of respiratory products. “From the perspective of evaluating a business going forward, you really need to look at the fact that Medicare is cutting the legs out from under providers in other areas. The one bastion of safety that is left is sleep.”

With the growing need, manufacturers have responded with a new generation of sleep-disordered breathing products designed not only to improve patient compliance but also to enhance providers' profits.

According to Gretchen Jezerc, respironics' director of U.S. marketing, sleep-disordered breathing, the company's new technology is “a way to help people be compliant and successful in their therapy from the beginning, because that's what really drives everything in terms of the success of a home care provider's business and the success of the physicians and clinicians in treating the patient.”

Manufacturers note that product enhancements are driven by several factors, competition among them — and that's good for patients, says Kristin Mastin, director of respiratory marketing for the DeVilbiss Respiratory Products Division of Sunrise Medical.

“The sleep market is a young market, so … each manufacturer is continually trying to offer the latest and greatest solution,” she says.

“Additionally, the industry as a whole is learning more about sleep and sleep disorders, which encourages manufacturers to push the envelope to develop more effective means of providing sleep therapy. These advancements are furthered by continual innovations in the components used in the manufacture of sleep therapy equipment.”

Mastin and others say patient need has a huge impact on sleep product design changes and improvements.

“What drives our newly designed masks and other respiratory products is patient feedback with specific requirements they have for the perfect mask to wear when sleeping,” says Kelly Rudolph, marketing manager for Hans Rudolph.