Project Summary/Abstract
Minnesota HealthSolutions Corporation in collaboration with the Mayo Clinic proposes to develop a data driven
system for persons with obesity sleep apnea that utilizes remote monitoring together with health coaching to
create behavior change aimed at improving health and quality of life. Obstructive sleep apnea prevalence has
been estimated at 7% for adult males and 5% for adult females. It is estimated that more than half of the
prevalence of OSA is due to excess body weight. Obstructive sleep apnea has been found in multiple studies
to be independently associated with hypertension, stroke, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and
reduced quality of life. However, separating obstructive sleep apnea related contribution to morbidity from that
of obesity and other comorbidities can be difficult. There are multiple relationships between a wide range of
comorbidities and obstructive sleep apnea. It is therefore important to address OSA, obesity and behavior
together. Health coaching has demonstrated effectiveness in addressing many chronic conditions. The use of
remote monitoring devices to collect health data offers an additional opportunity to enhance health coaching as
supported by preliminary research. Critically, the health data must be properly collected, analyzed, and
communication to be both valid and useful. Minnesota HealthSolutions and the Mayo Clinic have previously
collaborated to develop a successful home-monitoring system for another chronic disease and have
demonstrated their ability to overcome the many challenges of developing and deploying this type of system.