Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Sleep problems constitute a global epidemic that threatens health and quality of life for up to 45% of the world's population. Our society has already identified balanced diet, physical activity and emotional well-being as the 3 pillars of healthy living. Healthy sleep should be incorporated as the fourth pillar, as clearly supported by the extensively available scientific evidence. Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) affects more than 20% of adult population, with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) being the primary disorder among these conditions that imposes important pathophysiological consequences that lead to quality-of-life deterioration, excessive daytime sleepiness, increased motor vehicle accidents, depression and cognitive impairments, cancer, metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. OSA heterogeneity has not been formally characterized, being this lack of identification one of the main challenges for OSA management. Better understanding of the impact of OSA will improve the diagnosis and management of these patients, reducing the cost associated to these diseases. The overall objective of the project is to explore the pathophysiological mechanisms that promote the damage induced by sleep disorder breathing (SDB) through the identification of biomarkers for precision medicine. Likewise, the project will focus on the transferability of the evidence obtained to establish new innovative scenarios for the comprehensive management of the SDB. We aim to develop an innovative and cost-effective model for integral, precise, and personalized care management of OSA using different levels of healthcare, telemedicine, smart technology, simplified diagnostic methods and OMICS tools.

Besides progress in disease knowledge, this project will contribute to innovations in: a) Personalized tools for OSA diagnosis; b) Precision prediction of OSA comorbidities; c) Prediction of personalized treatment effectiveness; d)Refined technologies for OSA patient empowerment, e) Cost-effectiveness in OSA disease management,. Besides this contribution, the present Project will have a direct impact in: a) Patients: Impact on the quality of life and survival rates b) National health system: To define strategies to improve the diagnosis and management of these patients thereby reducing the cost associated to these diseases c) Clinical guidelines: development of new skills for clinical staff, integrating clinical, genetic and technological information to facilitate personalized treatment in patient with OSA. These advances can place the National Health System at the forefront of personalized medicine in OSA; d) Industry: Development of devices for diagnosis and CPAP treatment and biomarker-based tests to predict the response for specific treatments.

To get all these goals we have devised a Project study that includes clinic and basic researchers.