By Sree Roy
When Society of Behavioral Rest Drugs president Michael R. Nadorff, PhD, learned that Philips was discontinuing its Actiwatch, he was dismayed. “That was not a great announcement for me as I experienced invested rather a little bit of income in their actigraph line,” he claims.
Nardorff, a professor and director of the medical PhD plan at Mississippi State University’s department of psychology, primarily made use of the products for analysis, nevertheless he sometimes applied them clinically far too.
“As luck would have it, I experienced turned in a grant correct prior to the announcement that reported we would use all those actigraphs, and our score was negatively impacted mainly because the reviewers had rightly realized that we would not be capable to use them,” Nardorff says. (He has considering that rewritten the grant so it can deal with the 5-figure price of paying for new actigraphs.)
He concerns about how other clinicians and researchers will go over the unexpected expense. “I worry there will be some of us who are unable to order other watches and will both halt utilizing actigraphy or will use them out of spec considering that there is no way to get them recalibrated,” he says. (Editor’s take note: Talk to actigraphy providers for a low cost for staying a previous Actiwatch person numerous encouraged Rest Overview that they are supplying these kinds of discounts.)
Continue to, Nadorff stresses other excellent actigraphy devices are available. “Use it as an possibility to glance at the new features—they have appear a lengthy way in modern years—and pick a person that fits well with your follow,” he says. “I would really encourage persons to seek the advice of with individuals making use of other units to get a sense of how they like them.
“You may obtain that the outcome is an actigraph that is a far better in shape for your apply you just didn’t recognize considering that you have been beforehand locked into the Philips process.”
Snooze Evaluation has compiled 5 these kinds of alternatives.
Skip ahead to:
Actigraph LEAP | Ambulatory Checking Micro Motionlogger/SleepWatch 2. | Empatica EmbracePlus | SOMNOmedics SOMNOwatch Moreover/SOMNOwatch eco | Customer Wearables via Arcascope
ActiGraph LEAP
ActiGraph’s latest selection, ActiGraph LEAP, can obtain physiological alerts in addition to motion facts, which can present additional data about sleep and circadian rhythm further than simple actigraphy devices like Actiwatch.
“Actiwatch was a good item like our prior versions, it served customers nicely applying just an accelerometer,” states Jeremy Wyatt, CEO of ActiGraph. “Our new LEAP unit is equipped with multi-sensor know-how and delivers a broad spectrum of well being metrics from a single wrist-worn gadget.” Its photoplethysmography sensor signifies it can also present slumber staging and watch skin temperature, respiration, and oxygen saturation during sleep, in accordance to Wyatt.
ActiGraph delivers the raw information from all its units, “which is important for study transparency and longevity,” Wyatt states.
Backward compatibility with Actiwatch: ActiGraph has revealed a conversion equation to compare Actiwatch counts data to open up-supply ActiGraph counts.1 ActiGraph’s workforce of experts has also concluded two reports evaluating rest algorithms2 and formulated a new deep-finding out-based mostly algorithm that can work on equally Actiwatch counts and ActiGraph counts facts.3 Also, its data science group can provide support to current or preceding Actiwatch end users who want aid examining gathered info.
Manufacturer-encouraged review: Domain adversarial convolutional neural community enhances the precision and generalizability of wearable-centered snooze assessment technological know-how.3
Ambulatory Monitoring Micro Motionlogger/SleepWatch 2.
As an actigraphy-only organization, Ambulatory Monitoring Inc tends to make positive its equipment are beneficial and correct for the sleep business, suggests Tom Kazlausky, corporation president.
The company’s “secret sauce,” incorporated into the Micro Motionlogger actigraph that it suggests for persons seeking an Actiwatch different, is in the preprocessing of the signal. The Micro Motionlogger is superior than the Actiwatch at catching the tiny actions that denote gatherings such as wake just after rest onset and sleep performance. The Actiwatch discontinuation “leaves the area open for greater actigraphy,” Kazlausky suggests. He endorses that sleep clinicians and researchers request for actigraph validations in advance of purchasing new devices.
Ambulatory Monitoring is also placing the ending touches on its soon-to-debut SleepWatch 2. actigraph. Kazlausky claims, “We’re incorporating all the bells and whistles that folks are employed to when playing with slumber trackers,” together with Bluetooth connections, cloud software package, a photoplethysmography sensor, and a touchscreen with a scroll wheel.
The company expects to offer you a whole-worth trade-in software for individuals who want to enhance their Micro Motionlogger to the SleepWatch 2. after the new device’s launch.
Backward compatibility with Actiwatch: Ambulatory Checking offers uncooked knowledge from its devices. It will not let other products to interface with its software package.
Producer-advised research: Comparison of Motionlogger Watch and Actiwatch actigraphs to polysomnography for snooze/wake estimation in healthful younger grownups.4
Empatica EmbracePlus
Empatica’s EmbracePlus product, a part of the company’s whole-stack Empatica Health and fitness Checking System, presents far more than 120 digital biomarkers, about 100 of which are for actigraphy. The device can be utilised with Empatica components to permit positioning at locations including the wrist, waistline, hip, and chest.
The unit is developed to be really cozy to use, states Simone Tognetti, Empatica’s chief technology officer. “Last 12 months, on a research expedition to Antarctica to study the influence of excessive weather conditions conditions on fat burning capacity, members wore EmbracePlus alongside other common wearables to keep an eye on their physiology. By the stop, many of them reported that EmbracePlus was the only a person comfortable plenty of to dress in for days on close,” he suggests.
In contrast to the Actiwatch, the EmbracePlus employs a much more state-of-the-art inertial measurement unit with a improved resolution and a larger sampling frequency, Tognetti claims. “These features are vital for the evaluation and classification of physical exercise. In addition, the skill to leverage all the other crucial signs that the EmbracePlus can accumulate, this sort of as pulse charge and electrodermal exercise, can give an added layer of perception into the psycho-physiological states of the person, getting into account the exercise of the autonomic nervous method and how it impacts—and is impacted by—circadian rhythms,” he suggests.
“We’ve also intensified our efforts to place EmbracePlus not just as the suitable alternative to Actiwatch but as the wearable of preference for remote wellbeing checking reasons by concentrating on expanding our vary of electronic measures and investing in hardware enhancements. We are also functioning on porting third-bash algorithms into our system, generating an even additional enriched and complete providing for clinical gurus.”
Backward compatibility with Actiwatch: High-frequency raw data is supplied, collectively with a list of validated metrics on sleep and bodily exercise. Having accessibility to this level of granularity makes it possible for applying the Empatica Well being Monitoring System to acquire longitudinal alerts and use an array of algorithms for the information processing phase, which include the products designed and published by Philips, for a broader examination making use of the product that best suits each researcher’s wants.
Maker-proposed research: Snooze evaluation by suggests of a wrist actigraphy-based algorithm: Arrangement with polysomnography in an ambulatory study on older grown ups.5
SOMNOmedics SOMNOwatch Plus/SOMNOwatch eco
L. Janson Lanier, SOMNOmedics director of sales – Western US, endorses two options for rest clinicians and scientists looking for Actiwatch possibilities.
The 1st is the SOMNOwatch Moreover, which sleep and circadian gurus have utilized for additional than 20 many years. “The SOMNOwatch Moreover has the benefit of incorporating more sensors to document more indicators,” he states. The second, for pure actigraphy, is the company’s freshly developed SOMNOwatch eco, which equals the Actiwatch requirements but with a lengthier runtime.
“Both gadgets are smaller, light-weight, easy to use, and are as comfy to have on as a enjoy,” Lanier says. “They are potent multichannel recorders for actigraphy (3-axel accelerometer), motion, and overall body posture. They encase an ambient gentle sensor and a individual-marker button with acoustic tone.”
According to Lanier, the SOMNOmedics actigraphs have quite a few pros around the Actiwatch: SOMNOwatch In addition lets for the attachment exterior sensors to report far more indicators, most likely changing many products (this kind of as a periodic limb movements recorder) SOMNOwatch can be connected to the ankle as an alternative of the wrist for limb motion detection and the higher-frequency acquisition of movement details with a sample level of 256 Hz can be employed to file tremor depth and frequency around a more time interval. “This is practical for the assessment and procedure of Parkinson’s condition,” he states.
Backward compatibility with Actiwatch: SOMNOmedics techniques can only be made use of with the company’s DOMINO Light program. “We are looking into the likelihood of importing AWD documents into our application, so you can nevertheless open up aged Actiwatch data files,” Lanier suggests, including, “We do not recommend buyers use a software that is no longer supported by the producer. This could lead to stability threats that will not be solved mainly because Philips no lengthier supports the software package and will not make any updates.”
Producer-recommended review: AASM specifications of apply compliant validation of actigraphic slumber analysis from SOMNOwatchTM compared to polysomnographic rest diagnostics reveals large conformity also amid topics with sleep disordered breathing.6
Customer Wearables by using Arcascope
A rest researcher by schooling, Olivia Walch, PhD, is at any time functional. Considering the fact that actigraphy has still to be constantly reimbursed by third-occasion payors, Walch realized that to obtain some of the worth of actigraphy but with out the charge, a answer is to use products that men and women are by now ready to pay for out of pocket—their consumer wearables.
Arcascope, in which Walch is CEO, works by using buyer wearable info to assistance distinct demographics, generally change staff, boost their wellbeing by boosting their circadian rhythms. But she’s discovered an vital aspect organization in helping slumber scientists pull the uncooked data off buyer wearables, including the Apple Look at and Android Dress in-appropriate watches (which involves the Samsung Galaxy). With the discontinuation of the Actiwatch, she anticipates inquiries from clinicians too.
Arcascape can pull the raw acceleration details off these purchaser wearables. “Raw acceleration is great since it’s not a propriety selection. It is not trademarked,” Walch claims. She also pulls other details streams, these types of as heart fee variability, though people are trickier as the calculations are unique to the gadget manufacturer, which can modify its formulation over time.
When applications these types of as Apple Overall health allow for consumers and clinicians to watch a one night of rest data, “if you want to export that to a CSV file, It is not simple to do,” Walch claims. “You want another person who’s written code to enable you do it.”
Arcascape charges a flat charge as well as a for each-seat price to pull the uncooked information.
Backward compatibility with Actiwatch: “We give customers the uncooked info and concurrently a processed edition of it employing open up-source algorithms,” Walch says. “So they do not have to utilize the algorithm to the uncooked knowledge by themselves, but if they want to implement a new algorithm to it in the foreseeable future, they have it.”
Maker-encouraged examine: Arcascope is distributing a paper to a peer-reviewed journal next thirty day period showing the backward compatibility of Apple Enjoy information to the Actiwatch.
References
1. Lee PH, Neishabouri A, Tse ACY. Guo CC. Comparative assessment and conversion amongst Actiwatch and ActiGraph open up-source counts. J Meas Phys Behav. 2023 Aug7(1):jmpb.2022-0054.
2. Patterson MR, Nunes AAS, Gerstel D, et al. 40 decades of actigraphy in rest medicine and present-day state of the art algorithms. NPJ Digit Med. 2023 Mar 246(1):51
3. Nunes AS, Patterson MR, Gerstel D. Area adversarial convolutional neural network enhances the precision and generalizability of wearable-based mostly snooze evaluation technologies. Preprint. 13 Dec 2022.
4. Rupp TL, Balkin TJ. Comparison of Motionlogger Watch and Actiwatch actigraphs to polysomnography for sleep/wake estimation in healthy young grownups. Behav Res. 2011 Dec43:1152–60.
5. Regalia G, Gerboni G, Migliorini M, et al. Rest assessment by indicates of a wrist actigraphy-based algorithm: arrangement with polysomnography in an ambulatory study on older older people. Chronobiol Int. 2021 Mar38(3):400-14.
6. Dick R, Penzel T, Fietze I, et al. AASM benchmarks of apply compliant validation of actigraphic slumber evaluation from SOMNOwatch™ vs . polysomnographic rest diagnostics reveals superior conformity also amongst topics with snooze disordered breathing. Physiol Meas. 2010 Dec31(12):1623-33.
Top photograph: SOMNOmedics SOMNOwatch eco
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