Theta Sleep

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NHS Problem

1 in 5 adults has undiagnosed sleep apnoea. Not only are they exhausted, but they also have an increased risk of everything from accidents, heart attacks and strokes to diabetes, depression and dementia. Demand for diagnosis has doubled over the past three years, making respiratory sleep studies the fastest-growing key diagnostic test in the NHS. Unfortunately, this has led to massive waiting times,  nearly two years from referral to treatment. Over the next five years, the NHS is on track to spend over £1 billion on diagnosis alone, whilst reaching a fraction of those in need.

Founder Story

We founded Theta Sleep as a team of clinicians and technologists. Our Medical Director, Dr David Dawson, is a pioneer of remote sleep medicine, having established multiple services that have seen tens of thousands of patients. Our Chief Medical Officer, Dr Tom Chambers, is an anaesthetist, ESRS-certified Somnologist, and member of the RSM Sleep Medicine Council with an MSc in Sleep Medicine from Oxford. Our technical co-founders have designed and built platforms across education, sports, and gaming that have reached millions of users across the world.

The Solution

Our tech-enabled clinical sleep service moves sleep apnoea pathways from hospitals to homes. We do this using specialist software, expert clinicians and the latest devices. Patients are onboarded via our app, which covers education, sleep history and triage. We then arrange a home sleep study for them before an online consultation with one of our doctors. If treatment is required, we deliver that at home, too.

Impact

Thanks to digitisation, we are able to deliver this key diagnostic pathway entirely at home. This is a great example of the shift to digital, community, and preventative healthcare. Home delivery makes the service more accessible and removes the postcode lottery. We deliver the pathway 10-20x faster than NHS averages and at a significant discount relative to tariff. This means we generate a tariff surplus for services, whilst reducing waiting lists, increasing capacity and freeing up staff time.