WEST WARWICK – Astro-Med Inc., a technology company whose products include a wide range of electronic medical devices, has launched a new lightweight sleep screener for use in home sleep studies, to be sold under its Grass Technologies brand.
The unit, called SleepTrek3, was developed in anticipation of approval for reimbursement by the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. On March 14, CMS announced that Medicare would pay for home sleep studies using devices such as SleepTrek3.
“SleepTrek3 will make the benefit of sleep study available to many people who would otherwise not have been studied because they would not have met the high criteria to receive a doctor’s order for a full study in a sleep lab,” said Everett Pizzuti, president and chief operating officer of Astro-Med, in a news release.
“This is a convenient and less costly way of identifying people who might have a sleep problem,” Pizzuti added. “It is estimated that around 30 million Americans may have some sort of sleep disorder, and many more of them will now receive screenings with SleepTrek3.”
Until now, most sleep studies were conducted in sleep laboratories because Medicare and Medicaid would only pay for studies performed in laboratories.
“We are excited about the new growth potential in the sleep market as a result of the Medicare approval and the introduction of SleepTrek3,” Pizzutti said. “We expect this will benefit not only existing hospitals and sleep labs, but because of the low price of SleepTrek3, we expect to see the market expand to other physicians.”
SleepTrek3 allows doctors to order sleep screenings for patients who are considered likely to have sleep disorders such as sleep apnea, giving them the portable SleepTrek3 to set up and use in their homes. Those who appear to have a disorder would then undergo a more extensive sleep study in a lab.
SleepTrek3 records the home patient’s airflow, snoring, blood oxygen saturation, pulse rate, body position and effort, all known indicators of sleep disorder.
Astro-Med Inc. (Nasdaq: ALOT) is a maker of specialty printing, testing and measurement systems for industrial, scientific and medical applications. Additional information is available at www.astro-medinc.com.
