What captured sleep professionals’ attention this year—from pending reimbursement changes to wearables and oral appliance disruption.
By Sree Roy
We analyzed Google Analytics data to identify the four topics that most engaged sleep medicine professionals in 2025. As in 2024, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) dominated interest. But the center of gravity shifted: diagnostics—not therapies—emerged as the year’s top draw, reflecting mounting interest around upcoming changes to home sleep testing (HST) reimbursement.
1. Stakeholders Anticipate New HST Codes.
In February, the American Medical Association’s CPT panel accepted a new home sleep testing code set—an important milestone after years of advocacy by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and partner societies to replace outdated reimbursement structures. Still, clinicians understand that approval is only one step. Valuation decisions and guideline updates are ongoing, positioning 2025 as a year of watchful waiting rather than immediate operational change.
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2. A Small Recall, a Long Shadow—Market Impacts Linked to Philips Respironics.
Four years after its massive CPAP recall, Philips remains in the headlines. Philips Respironics recalled 93 DreamStation Auto CPAP and Auto BiPAP devices due to a programming error introduced during rework by a supplier. While small in scope, it served as an uncomfortable callback. Meanwhile, physicians continued navigating a market reshaped by Philips’ exit from CPAP sales in the United States, with the recall’s ripples still evident. A Sleep Review survey found that a majority of physicians said they now pay more attention to the type of sound abatement technology used in CPAP devices.
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3. Sleep Specialists Grapple with Consumer Wearables.
A study funded by ŌURA and conducted by Brigham and Women’s Hospital found that the Oura Ring was 5% more accurate than the Apple Watch and 10% more accurate than the Fitbit in four-stage sleep classification when compared to gold-standard polysomnography. But the accuracy question is only one piece of a larger puzzle. As consumer wearables proliferate, sleep specialists grapple with how to interpret and integrate patient-generated sleep data without eroding clinical standards.
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4. Oral Appliance Technologies Advance—But Perhaps Too Far?
The US Department of Veterans Affairs/Department of Defense signaled that it is on board with oral appliances as first-line therapy for mild to moderate OSA, one of several indications in 2025 of greater acceptance for this historically second-line therapy. Seizing a market opportunity, several startups now provide remote workflows to OSA patients who want oral appliances—resulting in swift backlash from some dental sleep medicine practitioners and the American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine, which clarified that it thinks the dental exam, taking of impressions, and construction of bite registration should only be done in person. Meanwhile, oral appliance marketers work on new technologies that they promise will treat multilevel airway obstruction.
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