Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for an estimated 19.8 million deaths per year.1 In the U.S. alone, it claims one life every 34 seconds.2 Despite improved opportunities for prevention, early diagnosis, and effective treatment, its prevalence continues to rise across the globe.
Addressing this widespread public health challenge will require innovative approaches to both diagnosis and treatment. One promising area of research is exploring connections between heart disease and its comorbidities, an approach that could enable earlier intervention and improve patients’ overall health.
Growing evidence suggests a correlation between cardiovascular disease and sleep disorders, revealing that poor sleep quality can significantly impact heart health.3 The systemic effects of sleep disturbances contribute to the development of cardiovascular conditions, including hypertension, heart failure, coronary artery disease, and arrhythmias.3 And this relationship goes both ways—cardiovascular disease contributes to disruptions in sleep.
Despite this strong link between sleep and cardiac health, the two are often treated in isolation. Sleep disorders are among the most underdiagnosed health conditions, with up to 85% of patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) going undiagnosed.4 Incorporating sleep testing into cardiac care pathways could help identify and manage patients who might otherwise go undetected and untreated.
An integrated approach is essential to deliver more efficient, effective, and comprehensive care for both disorders. By fostering a connected care experience that bridges clinical specialties, health care providers can treat the whole patient—with the ultimate goal of improving diagnosis, intervention, and outcomes for those affected by both cardiac and sleep-related conditions.
A Critical Gap in Patient Care
Cardiovascular and sleep disorders share a complex and deeply intertwined connection. For example, sleep-disordered breathing is a recognized risk factor for the development of atrial fibrillation (AF), a common cardiac arrhythmia, and has a high prevalence in this patient population. Research has shown that a significant number of patients with persistent AF also have undiagnosed OSA.5 OSA has been linked to the onset and progression of several other serious cardiovascular conditions, including coronary heart disease, heart failure, and stroke.6 These findings underscore the importance of recognizing OSA as a critical and underappreciated risk factor for heart disease.
Until recently, the common practice across health care has been to address cardiac and sleep conditions separately. However, this siloed approach creates dangerous gaps in patient care. Despite their substantial impact on heart health, sleep disorders are rarely addressed in cardiac care pathways.
Bridging this gap in care will require better integration across clinical specialties, with an emphasis on the co-management of sleep disorders within cardiovascular care settings.7 This proactive approach can support timely diagnoses and more effective management of both conditions, ultimately helping to improve care outcomes.
Earlier Diagnoses for Better Care
Recent research highlights the value of screening patients with AF for sleep apnea at the time of cardiac diagnosis. In Japan, cardiologists are leveraging five-day wearable electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring devices to identify arrhythmia patients with an elevated risk on the Cardiovascular Health Risk Index (CVHRI). These higher-risk patients are then referred for sleep diagnostics to assess the presence and severity of sleep-disordered breathing.
The early findings are striking, according to my colleague Sam Talya, Business Category Leader for Therapy Platforms, Sleep & Respiratory Care at Philips. Sharing unpublished data, he noted that among patients who completed home sleep testing, 28.6% were diagnosed with moderate OSA and 20% with severe OSA. In-hospital testing revealed even higher rates: 42% were diagnosed with moderate OSA and 30% with severe OSA. He also shared that in the same Japanese study, 42% of those diagnosed with OSA were able to start sleep therapy, with many likely prescribed a CPAP mask to wear at night.
Initiating sleep therapy can meaningfully improve cardiac care outcomes. For example, one study found that patients with AF and OSA who underwent catheter ablation and adhered to CPAP therapy experienced significantly lower rates of AF recurrence than those not using CPAP.8 By integrating cardiac and sleep care, health systems may utilize remote sleep testing and diagnostic tools to help ensure patients receive the appropriate level of treatment in a timely fashion.
Data-Driven Paths to Better Health
Combining cardiac and sleep screenings is a possible approach toward closing longstanding gaps in health care delivery. However, to truly transform care, these programs must be data-driven and fully integrated to enable a seamless treatment pathway from diagnosis to long-term management.
Health care organizations must embrace system-wide interoperability to support more collaborative and connected care across clinical settings. Through comprehensive access to patient information, providers can make more timely and informed decisions, helping health systems improve clinical workflows, lower costs, and deliver more effective care.
What would this look like in practice? The patient’s journey might begin with a consultation with a cardiologist, where they may be prescribed a remote ECG monitor to detect signs of AF. If the remote monitoring data reveals a concerning CVHRI score, the cardiologist can refer the patient for a sleep evaluation. An at-home or in-lab sleep test can then confirm the presence and severity of sleep-disordered breathing. Based on those results, the patient could be referred to a sleep physician for a formal diagnosis. Patients who are diagnosed with OSA may then be prescribed CPAP therapy and be fitted with a mask tailored to their sleep and breathing characteristics.
At this point, the patient may be connected with a durable medical equipment (DME) provider who can monitor their adherence to the CPAP treatment and keep an eye on the remote monitoring data. DMEs can help address adherence challenges, offering support and solutions if the patient requires a different type of mask or is struggling to comply with their therapy regimen. These providers also act as a bridge with the patient’s broader clinical care team, potentially notifying their sleep specialist or cardiologist if an intervention is required. In this model, data drives each step of the patient’s care journey—from the initial diagnosis to ongoing condition management— helping them receive effective, personalized, and timely treatment.
Because sleep affects multiple systems throughout the body, including cardiovascular health, integrating sleep insights across other specialties is essential for more informed decision-making. Providers with access to diagnostic tools and insights from sleep monitoring data may be better equipped to deliver more proactive, whole-person care.
Ultimately, combining CPAP therapy with cardiac monitoring fosters deeper collaboration between cardiac and sleep clinicians, helping them deliver more streamlined and personalized care that improves patient health outcomes, reduces costs, and enhances quality of life.
The Future of Cardiovascular Sleep Medicine
The traditional model of siloed health care is no longer adequate. The future of cardiovascular and sleep medicine lies in a more integrated approach—one that treats the whole patient rather than isolated conditions. A model that treats interconnected health issues in a coordinated way can lead to better outcomes and more efficient care delivery.
It’s equally important that this integrated care model doesn’t stop at cardiovascular and sleep care. Expanding this model beyond cardiology and sleep medicine could transform care delivery for patients worldwide, enabling health care systems to break down barriers between disciplines, improving clinical workflows, potentially reducing costs, and enabling more holistic care to broader patient populations.
When systems are connected, care becomes smarter, faster, and more tailored— ultimately empowering providers to make informed decisions and allowing patients to achieve better health.
By Teofilo L. Lee-Chiong
Source: SleepWorld Magazine Sept/Oct 2025
Teofilo L. Lee-Chiong Jr., MD, is a professor of medicine at National Jewish Health in Denver and at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine. He has authored or edited more than 20 textbooks in sleep medicine and pulmonary medicine, written more than 150 publications, and has given more than 300 presentations in the U.S. and around the globe. He also serves as an editorial board member and reviewer for several medical journals and publications. He joined Philips as Chief Medical Liaison for Sleep and Respiratory Care in 2011.
References
- World Health Organization. Cardiovascular diseases. WHO. Published July 31, 2025. Accessed September 11, 2025. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/cardiovascular-diseases-(cvds).
- National Center for Health Statistics. Multiple Cause of Death 2018–2023 on CDC WONDER Database. Updated September 10, 2025. Accessed September 11, 2025. https://wonder.cdc.gov/mcd.html.
- Jaspan VN, Greenberg GS, Parihar S, et al. The role of sleep in cardiovascular disease. Curr Atheroscler Rep. 2024;26(7):249-62. doi: 10.1007/s11883-024-01207-5.
- Kato M, Adachi T, Koshino Y, Somers VK. Obstructive sleep apnea and cardiovascular disease. Circ J. 2009;73(8):1363-70. doi: 10.1253/circj.cj-09-0364.
- Khan A, Patel J, Sharma D, Riaz S, Demissie S, Szerszen A. Obstructive sleep apnea screening in patients with atrial fibrillation: missed opportunities for early diagnosis. J Clin Med Res. 2018;11(1):21-25. doi: 10.14740/jocmr3635.
- Mitra AK, Bhuiyan AR, Jones EA. Association and risk factors for obstructive sleep apnea and cardiovascular diseases: a systematic review. Diseases. 2021;9(4):88. doi: 10.3390/diseases9040088.
- Joglar JA, Chung MK, Armbruster AL, et al. 2023 ACC/AHA/ACCP/HRS Guideline for the Diagnosis and Management of Atrial Fibrillation: A Report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Joint Committee on Clinical Practice Guidelines. Circulation. 2024;149(1):e1–e156. doi: 10.1161/CIR.0000000000001193.
- Fein AS, Shvilkin A, Shah D, et al. Treatment of obstructive sleep apnea reduces the risk of atrial fibrillation recurrence after catheter ablation. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2013;62(4):300-5. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2013.03.052.
