OREANDA-NEWS. In a new research study being presented tomorrow at the CHEST 2016 annual meeting, ResMed (NYSE: RMD) will share evidence that people who use a self-management app when treating their sleep apnea with positive airway pressure (PAP) are significantly more likely to stick with their therapy.

The observational study included more than 128,000 people with sleep apnea whose devices allow for their therapy to be remotely monitored by their clinician or by the patients themselves via myAir™, ResMed's cognitive behavior–based patient engagement app for the web and iPhone®.

More than 87 percent of PAP users were compliant on therapy when using ResMed's myAir and monitored by AirView™, compared to 70 percent compliance for those monitored by AirView alone (a 24% relative increase). While continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy, the gold standard in treating sleep apnea, has vastly improved due to innovations in device comfort and ease of use, in general, CPAP adherence may still be as low as 50 percent without the use of wireless monitoring.

"This new study shows that online self-monitoring tools engage patients and significantly improve their compliance and adherence to treatment," said ResMed Medical Director Adam Benjafield, PhD. "While our study focused on PAP users, we believe these results may be generalized more broadly in terms of the role online tools can have in improving medical treatment compliance overall."

"Half of all patients don't take their medications as prescribed,2 and we know that same statistic holds true for compliance with PAP therapy for sleep apnea," said Benjafield. "The effects of poor treatment adherence are profound, not only for the number of people suffering due to poor medication adherence, but also in terms of emergency room visits, hospitalizations and their financial burden to the healthcare system."