With $5.6 million in Series A funding led by Three Leaf Ventures, Beddr is launching a new product in the sleep space. Other investors in the round included the Stanford-StartX Fund, Delta Dental Washington Seed Fund, and I.T. Farm.

Now available for pre-order, the Beddr SleepTuner is the initial step in the company’s plan to deliver an integrated, digital approach to understanding and improving sleep.

“Working with leading sleep medicine experts, we’re bringing science into consumers’ homes with the first comprehensive solution that helps individuals understand factors impacting their sleep,” says Mike Kisch, co-founder and CEO of Beddr, in a release. “The Beddr SleepTuner helps people objectively understand the impact of sleep position, weight loss, alcohol consumption, as well as current treatments on overall sleep quality. Every morning, an individual will be presented with clinical grade insights and actions that may improve breathing, increase sleep duration, reduce snoring and improve recuperation.”

The Beddr approach integrates a sleep sensor, mobile app, and predictive analytics. The SleepTuner’s sensor is designed for comfort and ease of use when worn while sleeping over the course of multiple nights. It captures and correlates data points that include blood oxygen saturation, stopped breathing events, heart rate, heart rate spikes and sleep position. The SleepTuner connects wirelessly with the Beddr mobile app, guiding users through the “sleep tuning” process. The app compares each sleep assessment result to the prior one so users can see the impact of sleep tuning over time.

Beddr will ship an FDA-listed solution that leverages the science used in sleep labs, according to the company. “The Beddr SleepTuner is based on the best practices we use in a sleep clinic,” says Brandon R. Peters, MD, a practicing neurologist and board-certified sleep physician at Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle, who also sits on Beddr’s clinical advisory board. “As more and more people come to understand the importance of high-quality sleep, the demand for sleep expertise is exploding, and yet the supply of board-certified sleep physicians cannot keep up with demand. Existing solutions on the market have limitations; they’re either inaccessible to most people

In a recent position statement, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the American Medical Association argue that only licensed physicians are qualified to order and interpret home sleep apnea tests.

By Dillon Stickle

In May of this year, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) got the American Medical Association (AMA) on board to try to block dentists and other non-licensed-physician healthcare practitioners from using home sleep apnea tests (HSAT) to diagnose obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). According to the AASM article announcing its advocacy of this initiative, the position statement is meant to “defend the scope of practice of physicians and advanced care providers who manage patients with obstructive sleep apnea from encroachment by dentists and other practitioners, who are not trained or qualified to diagnose a medical disease.”

So how long has this resolution been in the works? AASM president Douglas Kirsch, MD, says it has been on their radar for quite some time. “In recent years, questions about the dentist’s role in the treatment of sleep-disordered breathing have been raised by dental boards in states such as Texas, Georgia, and Colorado,” he says. “The AASM has been working with members in these states, and with their state medical societies, to ensure that dental boards consider the medical perspective when evaluating the scope of practice of dentists.”

Kirsch adds that to make this perspective readily available to both dental boards and medical boards in every state, the AASM developed the position statement and introduced a resolution in the American Medical Association House of Delegates. The AMA declined to comment on this article, referring the reporter to the AASM.

Dentists might be wondering if the resolution is intended to be interpreted that at no time should they be using home sleep testing. Is screening allowed before sending the patient to a physician if the HSAT result is positive? How about titration before sending the patient back to the sleep lab for an efficacy check? Kirsch says no, and that all testing should be done by a licensed physician.

“It is the position of the AASM (and the AMA) that