BREATHING NEW LIFE: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCES ROLE AND CHALLENGES IN OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA DIAGNOSIS

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common and underdiagnosed condition that significantly impacts patients quality of life and poses health risks. Artificial intelligence (AI) in OSA care offers promising opportunities for improved diagnosis, treatment, and patient monitoring. This article explores different AI-based approaches to OSA diagnosis, such as machine learning algorithms to analyze oximetry, airflow, and other variables, smartphone apps to detect sleep-related disorders, and heart rate variability analysis. Despite its potential, integrating AI into OSA care presents challenges such as data quality, model interpretability, clinical validation, and ethical considerations. Strategies to improve AI usage include generating rich datasets, ensuring model interpretability, obtaining regulatory approvals, continuously learning and adapting models, integrating with electronic health records, and facilitating human-AI collaboration. Additionally, validation across diverse populations, user-friendly interfaces, and an ethical approach to patient data are critical to successful AI implementation. By addressing these considerations, AI can revolutionize OSA diagnosis and treatment, leading to better patient outcomes and more efficient healthcare delivery.