As if the COVID-19 pandemic has not already brought enough concerns to the world, physicians and researchers are seeing signs it is doing deep damage to people’s sleep. “Coronasomnia,” as some experts now call it, could prove to have profound public-health ramifications- creating a massive new population of chronic insomniacs grappling with declines in productivity, shorter fuses and other health problems.

To help combat coronasomnia, Saint Vincent Hospital is expanding its sleep lab with new home sleep testing technology from Itamar Medical. This new technology is an addition to Saint Vincent Hospital’s already existing home sleep services and will allow more patients to have their sleep studies in the comfort of their own homes. The WatchPATTM series of diagnostic Home Sleep Testing (HSAT) enables patients to easily perform a sleep study in the comfort of their own home. The technology provides sleep physicians and cardiologists the additional capacity to identify, evaluate, and treat sleep disorders found inherent in a significant population of atrial fibrillation and heart failure patients.

While Saint Vincent Hospital has been performing comprehensive services for sleep disorders, expanding the lab with this new technology enables the team to recognize and address the clinical correlation between sleep disorders and cardiac disease. This will assist with proactively diagnosing and treating patients in a timely manner.