NightBalance, a Netherlands-based company developing obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) therapies, has announced that the Dutch National Health Care Institute (ZIN) issued a positive recommendation to include its sleep apnoea therapy for reimbursement. The recommendation was issued to the Sleep Position Trainer (SPT), developed by the company to treat positional OSA.
The Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport will formally approve inclusion of the SPT following ZIN’s recommendation. The approval is based on the company’s data demonstrating clinical efficacy, which allowed NightBalance to fulfill the Netherlands’ reimbursement approval process standards for new medical devices and therapeutics. The government’s decision allows health care insurers in the Netherlands to offer the Sleep Position Trainer device to all Dutch citizens suffering from positional OSA, as part of the basic insurance plan. POSA is a subset of OSA, one of the most common and potentially serious sleep disorders.
“We are delighted with ZIN’s recommendation that the Dutch Ministry of Health approve the reimbursement of our sleep apnoea therapy, SPT. This marks an important milestone for our company” says Eline Vrijland-van Beest, co-founder and CEO of NightBalance. “This approval is the recognition of our ground-breaking work in building a solid clinical data set of more than 80,000 nights in peer reviewed published research, demonstrating the ease of use, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness of our therapy and the SPT device.”
The SPT prevents positional obstructive sleep apnoea by prompting patients not to sleep in a supine position. Worn in a strap around the chest, the patent protected SPT constantly measures the patients’ sleep position, and gently prompts users to change position without affecting their sleep. The SPT allows patients to fall asleep in any desired position, and its smart hardware uses individually adjusted feedback to assure sustained effectiveness. The SPT is prescribed by sleep specialists, ear, nose and throat specialists and pulmonologists.
NightBalance, founded in 2009 and based in The Hague, the Netherlands, developed and markets the Sleep Position Trainer device to prevent positional OSA. CE-marked since 2012, the SPT is currently sold in 11 European countries. NightBalance’s clinical data supports the efficacy and ease of use of the SPT, and has demonstrated a substantial increase in patient compliance versus traditional treatments for positional OSA.
