Personalized Treatment: Key to Success in Managing Chronic Conditions with Medical Devices

Comfort is key

When it comes to treating chronic conditions, personalization of treatment is paramount. Chronic conditions, by definition, require daily management. For patients to successfully manage these conditions, it’s not enough for the treatment to be effective—it must also be comfortable and seamlessly integrate into their daily life. After all, if a treatment is too cumbersome or disruptive, patients are less likely to stick with it. For any medical device aimed at treating a chronic condition, the goal is to encourage adoption and ensure that patients not only use the device but also love using it.

However, comfort alone is not enough. A treatment must also be effective in improving the patient’s condition. Chronic conditions vary greatly from one individual to another, and because medical devices must adhere to strict design and regulatory standards—such as those set by the FDA—they are often “frozen” by design, with little flexibility in how they can be tailored to an individual’s specific needs. This means that even the most well-designed device may not work perfectly for every patient. And this is where personalization becomes essential.

Why personalization is so important?

To truly address the wide range of variability that exists within the human body, medical devices need to be adaptable. They must be able to offer some level of customization in order to maximize their therapeutic effect for each patient. Moreover, these devices should provide mechanisms for continuous monitoring, so that adjustments can be made as needed.

At iNAP, we understand this need for personalized treatment. That’s why we designed our device with the ability to adjust key parameters that directly influence its effectiveness. For instance, iNAP allows the modification of two critical settings: the target negative pressure and the intensity of the pump, or how quickly the pump will reach that target pressure. This level of customization is crucial for addressing the wide variation in patient responses.

Additionally, iNAP’s connected app provides the capability to monitor treatment progress and evaluate how well the patient is responding to the device. By collecting and analyzing usage data, we can gain valuable insights into how the device is performing in real-time, ensuring that it is optimized for each patient’s needs.

One of the key advantages of iNAP’s customization capabilities is that it allows the treatment to evolve as the disease itself evolves over time. Chronic conditions, by nature, can change and progress over the years, meaning that a treatment that works well today may need adjustment in the future. The flexibility built into iNAP allows us to make these adjustments, ensuring that the treatment remains effective even as the condition changes.

When we ship an iNAP device to a new patient, the initial pressure setting is set to a standard level of -75 cmH2O. However, we’ve found that approximately half of our patients require adjustments to this pressure for optimal results. In fact, we’ve just published a peer-reviewed article*  showing that 83% of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) patients, most of them severe, significantly reduced their apneas to fewer than five events per hour after proper titration (pressure adjustment). This highlights the importance of having a system in place to customize treatment and track its effectiveness.

For iNAP users, one of the key benefits is that physicians can remotely adjust the pressure setting from their computer if needed. This flexibility ensures that the treatment is continuously optimized, and the process is as simple and convenient as possible for both the patient and the healthcare provider.

In conclusion, the combination of personalized comfort, effectiveness, and adaptability to evolving conditions is what makes a chronic disease treatment truly successful. By offering a device that can be fine-tuned to meet the individual needs of patients, iNAP provides an invaluable solution for a wide range of patients. This approach not only improves the lives of individuals with chronic conditions but also ensures that they can continue their treatment with ease, comfort, and, most importantly, success.

Medical Disclaimer: The content on this blog should not be taken as medical advice or used as a recommendation for any specific treatment or medication. Always consult your doctor before taking a new medication or changing your current treatment.   

*: Lin, HY., Nien, CT., Chen, CC. et al. Optimizing treatment of the novel intra-oral negative pressure for obstructive sleep apnea. Sleep Breath 29, 115 (2025).