Beddit Nouf Almeshari, Muneera Albahar, Fatemah Alawadhi, Gana Jargalsaikhan ITEC 200

The Problem…  60 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders, including insomnia, regularly.  Common treatments for sleep disorders include drug treatments and lengthy sleep studies.  Treatments are inherently costly and are aimed at short-term prevention rather than treatment.  Physician office visits for sleep apnea rose from 2 million in 2000 to 3.7 million in 2009, an increase of 85%.  Sleep disorders have been linked to hypertension, diabetes, depression, and obesity.

The Opportunity for Medicare…  Spending on sleep related technologies has increased by approximately 8.8% between 2007 to  In 2012, spending on the sleep monitoring industry had reached approximately $32 billion.  Sleep disorders account for an estimated $16 billion in medical costs each year, plus indirect costs due to lost productivity and other factors.  People are willing to invest in sleep.

The Solution…Beddit  Beddit informs you how you slept, and teaches you how to do it better.  Beddit measures sleeping patterns, respiration, heart rate, movements, snoring, and the surrounding environment.

What does it do?  Beddit works by providing you accurate and rich information with no wearable sensors.  Film sensor is placed under the bed sheet.  The product was developed in cooperation with VitalMed Sleep Clinic and Dr. Marrku Partinen, both leading experts in sleep research and medicine.

What does it measure? Primary Features  Sleep time  Heart rate  Respiration  Awakenings  Time to fall asleep  Movements Other Features  Sleep coaching tips  Programmed Alarm Clock  Personal sleep statistics

How does it work?  Based on ballistocardiography (BCG)  Method for measuring cardiorespiratory features.  Detects movements caused by respiration and heartbeats, then turns them into sleep wellness information.

Medical Research…  Beddit can be used for sleep research, senior care, and bed occupancy monitoring in hospitals.  Research projects and pilots currently in progress.

How to access the information?  Sensor sends sleep stats over Bluetooth to the smartphone.  Beddit app analyzes the information and provides customized tips to improve sleep.  Sleep is analyzed through comprehensive and sophisticated algorithms.  Individuals own and host the data.

Cost?

Why Medicare needs Beddit?  The treatment and diagnosis or sleep disorders accounts for 9% of internal medicine physicians, and 2% of the in-lab sleep studies billed to Medicare.  Medicare payments for sleep testing increased from $62 million in 2001 to $235 million in  $17 million in Medicare claims for polysomnography services did not meet the one or more of the three requirements for Medicare reimbursement.

What Beddit can do for you?  The investment will cut costs of sleep studies dramatically while preserving the richness of information (cost-friendly alternative).  Low selling cost: $149.  Minimal service cost.  Information is easily accessible.