Sleep apnoea and respiratory equipment services provider ISD Health Solutions is gearing up to officially enter the local market as it finalise plans to open its first store in Kingston next month.

“With this expansion locally, we are providing options for persons to get coaching and access to doctors who are knowledgeable in the area of sleep disorders and who can respond to a wide range of concerns about their children and partners. In offering them the convenience to do testing within their own homes with wireless technology through home sleep testing machines and accessories, our service will allow them to be able to retrieve data and to issue them for doctor’s review, allowing medical practitioners to make a diagnosis and to advise on a suitable treatment protocol where necessary,” founder, CEO and clinical director Gregory Arneaud said during an interview with the
Jamaica Observer this week.

“It’s a very lucrative space and based on the target market, which is comprised of more than a million persons in Jamaica suffering from untreated sleep apnoea, we are offering a niche market service that will help more people to have improved sleep outcomes and to live better quality lives,” he further told the Business Observer.

The service, which now cost about $32,000 for multiple nights of monitoring and recording different measurements for sleep testing, further attracts sums of approximately $200,000-$280,000 for various treatment options, with coverage provided by the island’s major health insurance providers.

Pending the official opening of the store, the company currently works with a network of medical professionals made up of emergency medical technicians (EMTs), pulmonologists and cardiologists who all refer patients for services.

The devices used to conduct testing, which can be collected through the company, can also be sourced from partnering Fontana Pharmacy outlets. With other pharmacy groups also being eyed, the aim, Arneaud said, is to widen the distribution footprint as plans for further roll-out in the market unfolds. “After this, we will also open up to doctors, medical centres and other organisations that would like to provide sleep study testing.”

“Additionally, we’re also teaming up with persons who may want to have equity as they invest in our project and we’re hoping to wrap up these discussions in the next week or so. The cost for developing the location, hiring personnel and bringing in the equipment, etc is pretty sizeable and as such, we will be looking for capital injections in private equity of about US$700,000 to US$1 million as we push to further expand the project in Jamaica and across the region,” the founder and CEO noted.

ISD Healthcare Solutions, which has been in operation since 2011 already, has operations in Trinidad and Tobago and South Florida in the US.

Following its readying of the soon to be opened Mountain View Avenue-based store in Kingston, the company is set to embark on an aggressive growth path which should see it further expanding with more locations.

“We’re looking to open up another location in Montego Bay at some point in 2025. In addition to the locations, we also want to leverage our relationships with other brick and mortar entities such as pharmacies, dental offices and medical facilities to become access points in the delivery of care. In working with these outlets, we want to tap into their foot traffic as we also target patients who suffer from hypertension, diabetes, heart conditions and erectile issues, most of which are directly related to sleep apnoea or sleep deprivation/insomnia in some cases,” Arneaud said.

“On a regional level, we also want to move into other markets such as the Cayman Islands, where we are now working with some doctors, as well as St Lucia, Barbados and Guyana. With Jamaica, however, being the largest English-speaking territory, this area will be an important focus for us as we get our feet on the ground and move forward in the building out of this business,” he added.

Sleep apnoea, which is said to be one of the most common yet most undiagnosed sleep disorders worldwide, impacts both physical health and mental well-being, increasing the risk of mortality in more severe and prolonged cases. The CEO and medical practitioner said that with more than a third of the Jamaican population affected by this disorder, the expansion of its services comes at very critical time when national discussions around productivity, which can be affected by the disorder, remains among strong talking points locally .

In forging partnerships with companies, the sleep apnoea services provider is also actively onboarding a number of public and private sector clients for which it will conduct staff assessment as they join forces to plug reduced productivity in the workplace.

“We do want to do these assessments in order to take a look at employees and to see how rested they really are or if they’re tired and having sleep disorder symptoms. We’ve already started to work with companies such as Petrojam, with other assessments lined up for more corporate groups in the coming months. What we want is for companies to see how their workforce and bottom lines can be impacted by sleep deprivation. Studies have already showed that billions of dollar worldwide in countries such as the US have been lost as result of these impacts,” Arneaud said.