COMPUMEDICS WINS SLEEP TEST CONTRACT

Overseas Trading

Australian Company Compumedics has won a competitive US Government-funded contract to conduct the world’s largest sleep study. The five-year Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS) was won against a field of 22 competitors, including multinationals.

The study, which will be conducted through the National Institute of Health, aims to prove that sleep disordered breathing is a risk factor in the treatment of cardiovascular disease. It will involve 6000 patients and its findings will help formulate approaches to identifying high-risk subjects with sleep apnoea, a condition that arises when breathing ceases for lengthy periods during slumber.

Compumedics will supply 40 portable sleep monitoring systems to nine university medical centres participating in the research project. It will also supply software for nine reading and six analysis stations.

The contract, for an unspecified amount, comes at a time when Compumedics is rapidly increasing its export markets in Asia, Europe and North America – and when Australian medical technology is gaining wider recognition as a world leader.