Fit for Duty selects Doctor2Go to offer online sleep apnoea consultations for corporates

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The National Sleep Foundation (USA) reports that sleep deprivation, not cancer or coronary illness, now constitutes the number one killer in the Western world. It is estimated that one third of New Zealand’s population will suffer from a sleep disorder during their lives while another one third are dangerously sleep deprived.

Experts claim that sleepiness is the smoking gun of the modern age and fear that unless we radically shift our attitudes towards sleep, we are heading towards a medical meltdown. Establishing if your employees have a sleep disorder, such as sleep apnoea, is critical. Not only can an individual’s health be adversely affected if it goes untreated, but the likelihood of a fatigue-related accident dramatically increases, putting not only themselves but also their colleagues and the community at risk.

Due to the nature of the role, drivers involved in the commercial heavy transport sector, especially male drivers, experience a much higher incidence of obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) than the rest of the population. Screening studies completed in this sector (in New Zealand) over the past three years indicate that approximately 24 per cent of male commercial drivers suffer from OSA, much higher than the reported national statistics of 9 per cent for all adult males.

Untreated OSA is known to contribute to fatigue-related severe accidents and severe health consequences with drivers having two to 15 times more frequent motor vehicle accidents compared to unaffected drivers. The transportation industry is identified as having two–three times higher than average rate of OSA, as well an increased incidence of three leading adult health care concerns – cardiovascular disease, diabetes and hypertension. Recent Australian research suggests that up to 41 per cent of long-distance heavy vehicle drivers are likely to have sleep apnoea.

The move to digital healthcare delivery meant a more straightforward process for Fit for Duty and their customers. The move to the on-demand online consultation model means that patients don’t have to try fit a consultation around changing availabilities. Fit for Duty can scale their operations without having to organise local nursing resources in each region. The move from an offline model to online was straightforward with the introduction of new learning and development modules and will lead to reduced administration overheads reduced travel time for medical staff.

The service works like this: when the patient reaches the stage of treatment that would previously have required a visit from a nurse, they instead log into Fit for Duty Doctor2Go portal using their one-time access code. Doctor2Go’s medical team has been trained to provide this stage of the sleep apnoea consultation, and they update the patient notes in Fit for Duty’s cloud-based patient management system for the sleep physiologist to review.

Source: Fit for Duty and Dr2Go joint media release, 2 June 2018

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