by Rick » Thu Feb 05, 2009 12:15 am
In 1937 they were using EEG to determine stages of sleep ("Journal of Experimental Psychology", Vol 21, No. 2, August 1937). Please be open to new things, if one can measure the state of the autonomic nervous system without electrodes and wires does that mean the data gained from it is always going to be invalid because it is not based on direct measurement of EEG?
This reminds me of one time in my past when physicians refused to believe that oximeters showed the true saturation of the blood with oxygen; the data was thrown out because it had not come from a blood gas drawn directly from an artery.
I am not saying that the WatchPAT works (afterall they compete with my employer) and I used the term "Pleth" because it had been used before. I have been lucky to be part of some experimentation that truly amazed me with its results. At that time I said it would not be accepted by the Sleep Medicine community because it was so different from what people were used to seeing. And here we are, six years later discussing the possibility in an open forum.
As I said before, just try to be open to new possibilities.