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Withings Sleep Rx: Allowing Sleep Specialists to Make House Calls

3 min read

Up to 30% of adults experience intermittent or chronic insomnia; 20% suffer from sleep apnea, although up to 80% of them are unaware and undiagnosed.1 Poor sleep and sleep disorders like Obstructive Sleep Apnea, have been linked to obesity, diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease, dementia, cardiovascular mortality, seizures, stroke, congestive heart failure, lowered immune response, and impaired judgment and reaction times. With such widespread prevalence and dire consequences, the theme of World Sleep Day 2025: MAKE SLEEP HEALTH A PRIORITY is an imperative. 

 

Polysomnography, either in a lab or at home, is the clinical gold standard for measuring sleep health, but these studies can be expensive, inaccessible and difficult to schedule. They are usually single-night observations which rely on human interpretation of data and do not capture variability in sleep quality over multiple nights. Withings Sleep Rx is a discreet mat placed under the mattress which captures many of the same metrics as polysomnography with longitudinal, contact free monitoring in a real-world setting. 

 

Sleep Rx is the first contactless, in-home sensor to aid in diagnosing Obstructive Sleep Apnea. This is measured and scored using the Withings Index. The Withings Index uses heart rate and breathing inputs (both sound and variations of pressure in the bladder) to calculate an estimated frequency of adverse breathing events per hour during the night. Clinical validation of the Withings sleep mat shows good agreement with polysomnography-derived Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI) with high predictive performance (88% sensitivity and 88% specificity) to classify moderate to severe OSA .2

 

Sleep Rx continuously tracks heart rate with ballistocardiographygraphy (BCG) using a pneumatic sensor that measures the mechanical wave that each heart beat sends through the body. BCG has been validated against ECG and found to be highly accurate .3 Variability in heart rate can be used to detect sleep phases .4 Nocturnal heart rate is comparable to resting heart rate and is a good indicator of overall cardiovascular health 5.

 

The Withings sleep mat also incorporates a snoring algorithm which crosses breathing rate and audio signals to identify snoring patterns and differentiate them from environmental noises or a partner’s snoring. The algorithm has been shown to be 94.4% precise with a 75.9% recall 6.

 

In addition, the sleep mat analyzes movement, interruptions, sleep onset latency, duration, regularity, and efficiency. With a one-time set up, the mat automatically syncs data via WiFi with the HIPAA-compliant Withings API and integrates with the Withings Remote Patient Monitoring platform. Sleep Rx is available by prescription in the US.

 

The ease of use of Sleep Rx combined with its sophisticated and robust metrics make it an ideal tool for capturing sleep variability over multiple nights. This cutting edge technology presents exciting clinical research applications, opportunities to optimize treatment adherence, and the ability to enhance the precision of personalized sleep medicine.

    1. Young T, Evans L, Finn L, Palta M. Estimation of the clinically diagnosed proportion of sleep apnea syndrome in middle-aged men and women. Sleep. 1997 Sep, 20(9):705-6.
    2.  Lechat B, Naik G, Reynolds A, Aishah A, Scott H, Loffler KA, Vakulin A, Escourrou P, McEvoy RD, Adams RJ, Catcheside PG, Eckert DJ. Multinight Prevalence, Variability, and Diagnostic Misclassification of Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2022 Mar 1;205(5):563-569. doi: 10.1164/rccm.202107-1761OC. PMID: 34904935; PMCID: PMC8906484.
    3. Brüser, K. S. Christoph. Adaptive beat-to-beat heart rate estima- tion in ballistocardiograms. IEEE Trans. Inf. Technol. Biomed. Publ. IEEE Eng. Med. Biol. Soc. 2011, vol. 15, no. 5, pp. 778–86.
    4. Redmond, P. de C. S. J. Sleep staging using cardiorespiratory signals. Somnologie – Schlafforschung Schlafmed. 2007, vol. 11, no. 4, pp. 245–256.
    5. Kim Fox, Jeffrey S. Borer, A. John Camm, Nicolas Danchin, Rober- to Ferrari, Jose L. Lope. Resting heart rate in cardiovascular disease. JACC. August 2007, vol. 50, Issue 9.
    6. Norman RG, Pal I, Stewart C, Walsleben JA, Rapoport DM. Inte-robserver agreement among sleep scorers from different centers in a large dataset. Sleep. 01 Nov 2000, vol. 23(7):901-908.

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What is Electrochemical Skin Conductance?

Electrochemical skin conductance (ESC) 
is a non-invasive measurement of the sudomotor function. It measures sweat gland nerve supply and assesses disorders of the autonomic nervous system, which is part of the peripheral nervous system.

Why is ESC important?

A significant number of diabetes patients will be affected by diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) in their lifetime, and the percentage of diabetes patients who might develop a diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is also considerable. In addition, studies have shown that the 5-year mortality rate of DFU is comparable to cancer mortality. Given these urgent concerns, electrochemical skin conductance is a crucial tool for health care providers.

But this key measurement doesn’t just provide an essential health care solution. Consider the increased average medical costs 
for patients with diabetes, the billions of dollars in costs for patients with DFU in addition to the costs of the diabetes itself, and the tens of thousands of dollars in per-patient Medicare reimbursement and reimbursement per patient with diabetes-related foot amputation. It’s clear that electrochemical skin conductance can reduce the costs of diabetes patient care, as well as many of the risks to patient health. 

Unfortunately, the current diabetes patient journey presents significant roadblocks, including the low percentage of diabetes patients who actually have an annual foot exam, the number of patients who are misdiagnosed due to unreliable tools, and the lack of patient monitoring. These issues highlight the need for connected health products that can measure ESC and other key biomarkers. These devices and systems can empower patients to take charge of their home health monitoring and motivate them to make beneficial lifestyle changes. They can provide care teams the consistent, accurate data they need to make the right treatment decisions, elevating overall care and improving health outcomes. And of course, they can lower care costs. The health risks to diabetes patients are real and significant — but real and significant solutions exist that can create positive impacts all around.

Click the button below to download the infographic. 

Download Now [post_title] => What is Electrochemical Skin Conductance? [post_excerpt] => Electrochemical skin conductance (ESC) 
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Smart Scales have traditionally been used by consumers to track their personal wellness metrics. However, Withings saw an opportunity to use highly sophisticated technologies in an at-home setting that provide critical data for providers to make more timely and informed care decisions. Body Pro 2 is that type of technology - a scale that adds both nuance and robustness to at-home health management and has the potential to improve the early detection of diabetic peripheral neuropathies (DPN). 

 

Remote patient monitoring provides immediate, daily measurements to track and manage patient care for at-risk patients. As the creator of the original home smart scale, Withings has 15 years of experience in this field and hundreds of peer-reviewed studies of its products and measurements. In 2022 Withings acquired Sudoscan®, the FDA-cleared medical device for assessing DPN. We have now incorporated the Sudoscan® technology -  which is already used by thousands of clinicians around the world - in our Body Pro 2 device.

 

Rather than hoping patients come for a regular foot exam, doctors and other health professionals can now monitor signs of diabetic peripheral neuropathy with daily readings to detect the earliest changes in small fiber neuropathy, at a stage when interventions can have the most profound effect. With 70% of patients with diabetes suffering from DPN at some point, regular assessment is critical. Unfortunately, annual comprehensive foot exams, as recommended by the ADA, have patient compliance issues and the conventional assessment techniques used by primary care practitioners (PCPs) often miss asymptomatic patients.

 

Body Pro 2 assesses small fiber nerves by emitting low voltage pulses to stimulate the sweat glands in the foot and measures reactivity to the impulse, providing a quantitative Electrochemical Skin Conductance (ESC) score. An equivalence study compared the ESC measurements of Withings’ at-home device with those of the Sudoscan device which has been used in specialty clinics and hospital settings for more than 10 years (1). The multi-center, cross-sectional study was carried out in four French university hospitals with 147 patients. Results demonstrated an almost perfect agreement in terms of sensitivity, specificity, and repeatability.

Within 60 seconds of stepping on the scale, patients and care teams receive feedback indicating whether small fiber neuropathy may be present. Care teams can then determine, based on the potential extent of the neuropathy, whether ongoing monitoring or immediate referral to a specialist is needed. The data are displayed on the screen and seamlessly transmitted to the care team by cellular, wireless, or bluetooth technology. This connectivity allows the physician to communicate with the patient and provide instructions for care.

 

Beyond the usual weight and BMI biomarkers, the Body Pro 2 is the first at-home cellular scale to measure body composition using multifrequency Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA). The body composition readings include fat mass, visceral fat, muscle mass, bone mass, and water percentage. A built-in algorithm, ProgramMemberID, assures that the data are coming from the patient - not a family member - and an engagement score helps a provider adjust advice to the patient accordingly.

 

Eric Carreel, Founder and President of Withings, commented, "Body Pro 2 allows for early detection of a largely underdiagnosed condition and therefore a better management of the diabetic foot. I also believe that providing access to longitudinal ESC data has the potential to help the industry rethink how we should care for patients with diabetes."

*

  1. Riveline JP, Mallone R, Tiercelin C, Yaker F, Alexandre-Heymann L, Khelifaoui L, Travert F, Fertichon C, Julla JB, Vidal-Trecan T, Potier L, Gautier JF, Larger E, Lefaucheur JP. Validation of the Body Scan®, a new Device to detect small fiber neuropathy by assessment of the sudomotor function: agreement with the Sudoscan®. Front Neurol. 2023 Oct 31;14:1256984. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2023.1256984. PMID: 38020587; PMCID: PMC10644320
  2. Amit Goel et al., « Comparison of Electrochemical Skin Conductance and Vibration Perception Threshold Measurement in the Detection of Early Diabetic Neuropathy », PLOS ONE 12, no 9 (7 septembre 2017): e0183973, https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0183973

  3. Angelica Carbajal-Ramírez et al., « Early Identification of Peripheral Neuropathy Based on Sudomotor Dysfunction in Mexican Patients with Type 2 Diabetes », BMC Neurology 19, no 1 (31 mai 2019): 109, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12883-019-1332-4

  4. Selvarajah D, Cash T, Davies J, Sankar A, Rao G, Grieg M, Pallai S, Gandhi R, Wilkinson ID, Tesfaye S. SUDOSCAN: A Simple, Rapid, and Objective Method with Potential for Screening for Diabetic Peripheral Neuropathy. PLoS One. 2015 Oct 12;10(10):e0138224

Interested in partnering with us?

Contact Us [post_title] => Withings Introduces Body Pro 2, an Rx Device for Early Detection of DPN* [post_excerpt] => Smart Scales have traditionally been used by consumers to track their personal wellness metrics. However, Withings saw an opportunity to use highly sophisticated technologies in an at-home setting that provide critical data for providers to make more timely and informed care decisions. Body Pro 2 is that type of technology - a scale that adds both nuance and robustness to at-home health management and has the potential to improve the early detection of diabetic peripheral neuropathies (DPN). [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => withings-introduces-body-pro-2-an-rx-device-for-early-detection-of-dpn [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2024-04-25 07:55:15 [post_modified_gmt] => 2024-04-25 07:55:15 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://withingshealthsolutions.com/?p=1190 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) ) [post_count] => 2 [current_post] => -1 [before_loop] => 1 [in_the_loop] => [post] => WP_Post Object ( [ID] => 1275 [post_author] => 1 [post_date] => 2024-05-20 14:03:17 [post_date_gmt] => 2024-05-20 14:03:17 [post_content] =>

What is Electrochemical Skin Conductance?

Electrochemical skin conductance (ESC) 
is a non-invasive measurement of the sudomotor function. It measures sweat gland nerve supply and assesses disorders of the autonomic nervous system, which is part of the peripheral nervous system.

Why is ESC important?

A significant number of diabetes patients will be affected by diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) in their lifetime, and the percentage of diabetes patients who might develop a diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) is also considerable. In addition, studies have shown that the 5-year mortality rate of DFU is comparable to cancer mortality. Given these urgent concerns, electrochemical skin conductance is a crucial tool for health care providers.

But this key measurement doesn’t just provide an essential health care solution. Consider the increased average medical costs 
for patients with diabetes, the billions of dollars in costs for patients with DFU in addition to the costs of the diabetes itself, and the tens of thousands of dollars in per-patient Medicare reimbursement and reimbursement per patient with diabetes-related foot amputation. It’s clear that electrochemical skin conductance can reduce the costs of diabetes patient care, as well as many of the risks to patient health. 

Unfortunately, the current diabetes patient journey presents significant roadblocks, including the low percentage of diabetes patients who actually have an annual foot exam, the number of patients who are misdiagnosed due to unreliable tools, and the lack of patient monitoring. These issues highlight the need for connected health products that can measure ESC and other key biomarkers. These devices and systems can empower patients to take charge of their home health monitoring and motivate them to make beneficial lifestyle changes. They can provide care teams the consistent, accurate data they need to make the right treatment decisions, elevating overall care and improving health outcomes. And of course, they can lower care costs. The health risks to diabetes patients are real and significant — but real and significant solutions exist that can create positive impacts all around.

Click the button below to download the infographic. 

Download Now [post_title] => What is Electrochemical Skin Conductance? [post_excerpt] => Electrochemical skin conductance (ESC) 
is a non-invasive measurement of the sudomotor function. It measures sweat gland nerve supply and assesses disorders of the autonomic nervous system, which is part of the peripheral nervous system. [post_status] => publish [comment_status] => closed [ping_status] => closed [post_password] => [post_name] => what-is-electrochemical-skin-conductance [to_ping] => [pinged] => [post_modified] => 2024-12-12 21:11:11 [post_modified_gmt] => 2024-12-12 21:11:11 [post_content_filtered] => [post_parent] => 0 [guid] => https://withingshealthsolutions.com/?p=1275 [menu_order] => 0 [post_type] => post [post_mime_type] => [comment_count] => 0 [filter] => raw ) [comment_count] => 0 [current_comment] => -1 [found_posts] => 2 [max_num_pages] => 1 [max_num_comment_pages] => 0 [is_single] => [is_preview] => [is_page] => [is_archive] => [is_date] => [is_year] => [is_month] => [is_day] => [is_time] => [is_author] => [is_category] => [is_tag] => [is_tax] => [is_search] => [is_feed] => [is_comment_feed] => [is_trackback] => [is_home] => 1 [is_privacy_policy] => [is_404] => [is_embed] => [is_paged] => [is_admin] => [is_attachment] => [is_singular] => [is_robots] => [is_favicon] => [is_posts_page] => [is_post_type_archive] => [query_vars_hash:WP_Query:private] => 3c5c4e63d375a3f792da306bb656708a [query_vars_changed:WP_Query:private] => [thumbnails_cached] => [allow_query_attachment_by_filename:protected] => [stopwords:WP_Query:private] => [compat_fields:WP_Query:private] => Array ( [0] => query_vars_hash [1] => query_vars_changed ) [compat_methods:WP_Query:private] => Array ( [0] => init_query_flags [1] => parse_tax_query ) )
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What is Electrochemical Skin Conductance?

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Withings Introduces Body Pro 2, an Rx Device for Early Detection of DPN*

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