As a part of its initiative to raise awareness among medical fraternity and general population on sleep apnea management, Philips India is planning to train about 600 doctors on diagnosing and treating the disease in major cities across the country by end of the year 2017.

Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder characterized by pauses in breathing during sleep. Each pause can last for a few seconds to several minutes and they happen many times in a night time duration. It is a highly under diagnosed and a potentially life threatening ailment. It is associated with comorbidities like hypertension, diabetes, stroke. India is suspected to have over 91 million people suffering from sleep apnea but a few number of people are aware of their condition.

Taking serious note of this, Philips India has taken initiative to advance knowledge about snoring and sleep apnea and its disorders amongst both healthcare providers and people. “Sleep apnea affects the quality of life greatly because of its effect on sleep which has major consequences on the health. Our Center of Excellence is partnering with doctors to develop physician level awareness by ensuring certified training to them from leading experts. This provides them with the knowledge and the clinical expertise to manage the disease. We aim to train about 600 doctors by this year end,” said Priyank Aggarwal, head of strategy and direct 2 patient businesses, Philips India.

Philips India has introduced a range of Dream series products including Dream Station Auto CPAP, DreamWear to improve care for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients.

Talking about factors contributing growth of sleep apnea device market in India, Aggarwal said “Our busy and stressful life has led rise to a number of lifestyle issues, sleep apnea being one of them. Philips has worked to raise awareness around sleep apnea and how it can slowly impact one’s entire life. The increased awareness levels is contributing to the growth of sleep apnea device market in India. The sleep apnea market is expanding because of the rising level of awareness.”

The company has set up 500 sleep labs across the country operated by sleep technicians. So far 400 sleep technicians have been trained by the company. It is planning to train 400 sleep technicians to match the increasing number of sleep labs.