Sleep Disorder Diagnosis

Abstract

Sleep disorders are a significant and growing problem, both for the economy of the nation and for the physical and psychological well-being of individual sufferers. Physicians are under pressure to find ways of dealing with the backlog of patients. The purpose of this chapter is to investigate the operational, administrative, and medical environment within which sleep physicians diagnose patients with sleep disorders and develop an online support system that would efficiently gather patient history data and improve the effectiveness of patient-physician consultations, the diagnoses, and patients' self-management of any subsequent treatment plans. Investigations confirm that the physicians spend a large portion of the available consultation time on routine questions. In the new system, the patient information is captured by the patient completing an online questionnaire. Due to the reduction in time given for data collection, the physician can spend time with the patients discussing patient-specific symptoms and life-styles.