According to a KCTV 5 news report, Saint Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, Mo, is participating in a clinical trial for Remede, a new treatment for sleep apnea.
In 2013, Michael Melching became eligible for the Remede clinical trial at Saint Luke’s Hospital. The Remede is a pacemaker-like device that is implanted underneath the collarbone. It paces the diaphragm to get night-time breathing back on track.
“There’s actually a series of paces that makes someone take a deep breath in. We’re making them take a deep breath like they normally would during sleep,” said Dr. Andrew Kao, a transplant cardiologist at Saint Luke’s Mid-America Heart Institute.
The Remede kicks on automatically during sleep. Doctors can even monitor your information through a portable tablet and can change the settings non-invasively at any time. So far, the device has proved to reduce central sleep apnea symptoms by 90 percent.