Inspire Invests $10M in EnsoData and Seed Funding for Ognomy

Inspire Medical Systems, Inc. (“Inspire”) reported equity investments in two private companies, EnsoData, Inc. in Madison, WI, and Ognomy Inc. in Buffalo, NY.

EnsoData increases sleep lab capacity and efficiency with their FDA-approved sleep study analysis platform, EnsoSleep. Using waveform Artificial Intelligence (AI), EnsoSleep automates the scoring and analysis of polysomnography (PSG) and home sleep testing, freeing clinician time to focus on patients. Further, EnsoSleep analyzes sleep test waveform data to provide accurate sleep staging and event detection for clinician review. The technology integrates with the sleep labs’ existing software and diagnostic devices, automatically analyzes and scores sleep studies, and requires no change to existing clinical workflows. EnsoSleep is currently available in over 500 sleep centers in the U.S. and analyzes over 30,000 sleep studies per month. Inspire’s minority investment in EnsoData is $10 million.

Ognomy was built by sleep physicians to increase access to sleep apnea care by shifting diagnosis and treatment from the clinic to patients’ homes. The Ognomy app provides the interface between the patient and a sleep physician, while the Ognomy web portal allows clinicians to see and manage patients from any location. Following a digital consultation, the physician can order a home sleep study to be sent directly to the patient. Typically, the patient can receive a completed sleep evaluation and clinician follow-up in just a few days. Inspire provided seed funding to Ognomy to further develop their platform and to initiate a pilot program intended to support its integration with the Inspire Advisor Care Program starting in May of 2022.

Over 20 million Americans have OSA, and many go undiagnosed or untreated due to limited capacity for specialty sleep care. Convenient access to sleep specialists through Ognomy and efficient, accurate scoring from EnsoData both play an important and emerging role in increasing sleep practice capacity to address this growing health challenge.

“These partnerships emphasize our focus on developing a digital platform to help patients navigate their journey to an effective solution for their OSA, such as Inspire therapy,” stated Tim Herbert, Inspire Medical Systems President & CEO. “As we expand our Advisor Care Program, we understand that long sleep study wait times are a challenge for many patients. We need innovative solutions to help patients quickly, conveniently, and accurately assess the severity of their OSA and subsequently connect appropriate patients with a qualified healthcare provider to consider treatment options, including Inspire therapy. These investments will allow EnsoData and Ognomy to more rapidly grow their respective businesses, which will benefit Inspire’s ability to more broadly leverage their technologies.”

“Using AI technology to support sleep physicians in the collection and prompt analysis of sleep data in the patient care pathway enhances the patient’s experience and increases the physician’s efficiency, thereby adding capacity to their practices,” added Herbert. “Finally, these tools provide clinicians insight into patients diagnosed with moderate to severe OSA who are not currently receiving adequate therapy, thereby identifying potential patients in need of therapy adjustment or alternatives, such as Inspire.”

Source: Inspire