Precision medicine in obstructive sleep apnoea

Abstract

Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) is a heterogeneous and complex disease; however, diagnosis and management still rely on a simple set of tools and few therapeutic options. Precision medicine has emerged as the next goal for clinical practice, with the objective being to offer individually tailored treatments. Ways of implementing precision medicine in clinical practice have emerged for various respiratory disorders, and such an approach could also be readily exported to OSA. Here, we propose a control panel tool that describes OSA in four domains: disease severity, biological activity, impact on the patient, and pathophysiological traits. We also propose a graphical instrument, the clinical fingerprint tool, to enable the tracking of patients over time. These tools can address the complexity of OSA and guide a physician's course of action on the basis of the treatable traits of an individual patient, thereby facilitating clinical implementation of precision medicine in the disorder.