The Siesta Group

The Siesta Group offers the world’s most efficient PSG scoring solution for diagnostic sleep centers in North America and world-wide. Centred around Siesta’s unique Somnolyzer 24x7 technology, scoring a sleep study becomes as fast, reliable and cost-efficient as never before. The Siesta Group also serves as specialised CRO for sleep-related clinical trials.

Company Background
The Siesta Group North America Inc., based in Salisbury MD, is focused on the commercialization of Somnolyzer 24x7 in clinical and research environments, reaching out to Sleep Laboratories, Sleep Diagnostic Networks, and university/medical institute collaboration.

The Somnolyzer 24x7 is deemed as the world leading solution for automated sleep scoring, based on data ("polysomnography") routinely recorded in sleep laboratories. Compared with multiple other solutions in April 2007, the Somnolyzer 24x7 was cited by the Journal of Sleep medicine to be the only "level 1" automated sleep scoring system available in the world.

The Siesta Group GmBH, based in Vienna Austria, is the worldwide competence center for analyzing sleep and daytime vigilance (wakefulness). It is based on a unique cooperation of leading European sleep scientists and professionals, who make their know-how and expertise accessible to customers worldwide, around the clock.

The Siesta Group consists of a team of 50 specialists comprising employees, scientific and business consultants and top European scientists as shareholders.  It is with this expertise that the core product/service has been created; Somnolyzer 24x7.

The Siesta Group provides scientific knowledge and state-of-the-art technologies in the field of sleep and vigilance analysis to its customers. Sleep labs, the pharmaceutical industry, contract research organizations, corporations, care and well-being institutions all benefit from a comprehensive view on all sleep related issues.

Meeting the Market needs through an identified Strategy
Somnolyzer 24x7 is the product that brings reproducibility and repeatability to the critical portion of the analysis phase of sleep diagnostics by maintaining a consistent method of scoring, where current methods of scoring and staging introduce high levels of variation.

In summary, Somnolyzer 24x7 is characterized by the following parameters:

• Increasing cost-effectiveness of sleep-scoring
• Increasing the quality and reproducibility of scoring
• Decreasing the turn-around time for diagnosis after the sleep study

In effect the consistency (Quality) and cost are the main drivers for any customer of the Siesta Group utilizing or planning to utilize the Somnolyzer 24x7 service.

The table in Appendix TSG 1, shows the detailed cost benefits for any lab or diagnostic network on implementation of the Somnolyzer 24x7 and subsequently designed effective and efficient workflow techniques. Appendix TSG 2 details the customer benefits based upon finite capacity increase. It should be noted that there is no finite measurement of Somnolyzer 24x7 capacity, such capacity would be determined by the number of processors applied, thus it could be said that the Somnolyzer has infinite capacity.

Efficiency in Workflow Management
Manual handling steps are removed in the workflow solution, creating a seamless transport of files (Sleep Studies) through the required workflow steps, saving time and maintaining total file integrity. Utilizing The Siesta Group's Somnolyzer 24x7, scoring is completed in under 20 minutes per file and by creating a parallel workflow an infinite number of studies can be processed at the same time, unconstrained by managed resource hours.

When the sleep analysis/scoring is completed in Somnolyzer an output file in the native file format is produced, eliminating the need for manual file conversion and is then placed automatically back into the software being used by the Sleep Lab's analyzed/scored" folders as defined in the workflow. A structured quality review is then executed, which, using the Somnolyzer 24x7 and The Siesta Group's clinical expertise, is reduced to 5 minutes on average.

The introduction and implementation of the Somnolyzer 24x7 service/product will reduce the total time spent per study by up to 1.5 hours.

Patient benefit and Consistency in results.
The very nature of the Somnolyzer technology combined clear project objectives in meeting workflow requirements for sleep labs and sleep diagnostic networks will drive the clinical quality in the positive direction, there is no need to worry about the consistency of scoring method, or that under retest conditions a sleep study could be scored differently twice as is almost guaranteed to occur under the current methodology.

The speed at which patient data can be generated is a paramount feature of Somnolyzer 24x7 implementation. The patient analysis could in fact be completed in principle prior to the patient leaving the sleep lab in the morning, albeit that the diagnosis and the time taken here will still be directly influenced by the speed at which each physician takes to analyze the night before data and scoring.

As the Somnolyzer introduces an efficient clinical tool as well as the projected workflow tools, the internal cost structure will essentially change for each lab and network using The Siesta Group Solution, and as the compensation for sleep studies continues it's downward trend, the concept of the efficient workflow becomes of even more importance.

Somnolyzer 24X7 - Scoring Technology with Business Benefits
Like all industry and families alike, the sleep care sector of the health care industry is quickly driving towards the point at the point where serious decisions in regards to the financial future and objective security  of individual sleep labs, large sleep lab networks and scoring networks alike.

Our Sleep sector is facing almost the same challenges financially as we have seen in many other industry sectors, an escalated level of focus is being applied to the financial well being of Sleep Lab businesses albeit the size. Insurance compensation is not what it once was when these labs were set up and dwindling compensations seen within our own customer base with overall reduced referrals in Q4 2008 and Q1 2009.

The executive level where decisions are normally made for the financial wellbeing of sleep labs and scoring businesses is often fraught with compromise and to some degree can endanger the very same security and future strategic positioning of any such business.

There are certainly some questions that The Siesta Group cannot answer in terms of the overall strategy employed within many Sleep Lab businesses. However, our inherent belief in a scalable and stable business platform for scoring and staging activities centered around our proprietary software, Somnolyzer 24x7, leads us to believe from our experience within our current customer base that we can and will provide a robust business solution as well as a technically viable and clinically precise tool.  

At the end of the day, the life of a business is prolonged by good and predictable cash flows as well as significance in bottom line financial income.

Implemented correctly, the Somnolyzer 24x7 tool is one which brings a refreshing and yet apparent effectiveness, to somewhat unwieldy and costly processes.

Implementing Somnolyzer 24x7 into your Business
There are a number of concerns which traditionally arise as a result of a business decision choosing Somnolyzer 24x7 as the preferred platform for scoring and staging activities Fear of Technology, we have summarized a few of these areas below:

1) Business scalability
We are all very well aware of the forces which can inject unpredictability into our planning for both referrals, accounts receivable, the use of Somnolyzer 24x7 provides a tool which is at your disposal and can be scaled no matter your load v capacity constraints and fluctuations derived by such forces. The Siesta Group provides capacity loading and pricing models to meet your customizable needs as your business grows and fluctuates on the forward path.

2) Consistency in Scoring/Staging, "Valid and Robust"
As opposed to other automatic scoring programs you might have seen, Somnolyzer 24x7 has a proven performance that makes it indistinguishable from a human expert. It was developed and tested on the largest normative database on healthy and disturbed sleep available worldwide. Given the known variability between and within human scorers, achieving "100% correct" scoring is impossible. Instead, Somnolyzer 24x7 has been proven to have the same performance as any human expert when compared to other experts. What counts even more, Somnolyzer 24x7 does not make any systematic errors that would have an influence on subsequent diagnosis. It delivers results you can trust and rely on.

3) Technology Replaces People?
It is widely assumed that Sleep Lab businesses which employ automated techniques for scoring and staging will at some point or even immediately rescale the human resource elements associated with scoring activities.

This is somewhat a blinded view; The Siesta Group has modeled many Sleep Lab options in regards to the re-allocation of human resources on the implementation of Somnolyzer 24x7. Firstly and most importantly a validated quality review must be carried out as per AASM guidelines, which requires trusted and talented and registered polysomnographic technicians to complete. The Siesta Group has also modeled business growth concepts which include current staff levels in order to expand without having to rescale human resources, making the staff that grows with the business expansion increasingly more valuable and effective.

So instead of replacing people, the implementation and use of Somnolyzer 24x7 empowers people.

In Summary
The selection of Somnolyzer 24x7 as your computer assisted scoring tool aligned with professional and technically advanced support from The Siesta Group, is clearly a step towards a secure future as a viable sleep lab business, both in terms of clinical consistency and business workflow efficiency.

The Siesta Group will support your implementation project from the very outset and provide you ongoing support. We will provide a significant level of training for your key staff in using our workflow technology and will tailor a pricing model which meets your objectives in both sleep lab and as the specialised CRO for sleep-related clinical trials.

Contact information for North America:
Alexander Barr, VP, Director of Business
The Siesta Group North America Inc.
5475 Airport Terminal Road
Salisbury, MD 21804
T: 410 430 4618
F: 443 944 8191
E: INFO.NA@thesiestagroup.com
www.thesiestagroup.com

Contact information for Europe and the rest of the world:
Prof. Dr. Georg Dorffner, CEP/President
Schlosshofer Strasse 11-3rd Floor
A-1210 Vienna, Austria
T: +43 1 955 12 13 27
F: +43 1 955 12 13 50
E: info@thesiestagroup.com