Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) is a condition where, as you sleep, your breath becomes very shallow and you may even stop breathing. In many cases, you stop breathing more than a hundred times a night! The best solution developed to date is called Continuous Positive Air Pressure (CPAP) and it is far from an ideal fix. Imagine trying to sleep while wearing a clear plastic mask that covers you mouth and nose, held on with straps and pads on your forehead and around your neck. Then add a long hose attached to the mask and connected to an electric pump. That is how CPAP is administered and the result is a bad night’s sleep.
Untreated, OSA leads to serious health issues. Since compliance with CPAP users is extremely low (from 30–80% of users, a large number of whom are seniors, are not long-term compliant), OSA is a major medical problem. Sleep apnea is a $4.7 Billion market in the U.S alone that will grow to over $6 Billion by 2019.
In In Search of Innovative Problems, we identified the 10 Signposts of Innovation that flag areas where innovative problems reside. OSA and the established CPAP ‘solution’ represent a very fertile field for innovation:
· The CPAP mask and tubing have been around for decades (Signpost #1), even though it is lacking;
· The OSA problem is constant, occurring every time you sleep, and millions suffer from OSA (Signpost #2);
· Failure to treat OSA can lead to significant health problems (Signpost #3);
· The CPAP machine is large and cumbersome and requires frequent cleaning (Signpost #4);
· While you can take the machine with you, it requires an external power source and gets tangled and definitely impedes you ability to be mobile when you sleep (Signpost #6);
· With all the tubing, straps, mask and connecting electrical pump, the CPAP machine represents a very high degree of complexity for something designed to help you sleep (Signpost # 8);
· OSA impedes your ability to get a good night’s sleep and to stay healthy, two very basic needs the lack of which degrades the human condition (Signpost #9); and
· Finally, the extremely high degree on non-compliance with CPAP reflects the long-term failure of the best existing solution (Signpost #10).
The problem seeker in the OSA field appears to be Stephen Marsh, an inventor and entrepreneur in the electronics and healthcare fields. His brother David suffers from OSA and sent Stephen a photo of him with the mask and straps attached. The photo terrified Stephen, who says, “The picture is still in my phone and I think it’s still in my head.”
Stephen had done work developing micro-blowers for heat regulation of computer chips. When he saw his brother’s dilemma and recognized the numerous signposts that were pointing to the innovation opportunity, he realized that he could use the micro-blowers to pump air to regulate breathing. Hundreds of micro-blowers can be incorporated into a tiny device to create the precise air pressure needed as the user inhales. The micro-blowers are entirely contained within the device so no hoses or external pump are needed. The blowers are battery operated, so no cords are required. And the ‘mask’ is reduced to a pair of silicone nose buds that allow users to move around effortlessly in their sleep.
The result — Airing, a disposable, one-night use, less than one ounce in weight, micro CPAP device.
Now raising funds on the Indiegogo crowdsourcing platform, Marsh’s micro CPAP device is moving toward a planned market introduction in mid-2017. If all goes as planned, millions of sleep sufferers can look forward to finally getting a good night’s sleep.
You can learn more about the micro CPAP device here. To learn more about Innovative Problems and our process for becoming problem seekers, please join us at our Innovation Nation page on Medium.
© Brian Leitten & Bradley Strock 2015
