Respiratory Oxygen Adherence Monitor for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Patients

This clinical trial will be a conventional randomized, parallel controlled trial to evaluate the primary hypothesis that a 4-week period of using the ROAM adherence monitor and support system will result in increased adherence when compared to a control group with no adherence monitoring. The participant population will be individuals with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and who have been prescribed oxygen therapy for a minimum of 8 hours/day. Half of the participants will be randomly assigned to the ROAM group; the other half will comprise the control group. All participants will bring their regular oxygen supplies to the clinic to be fitted with the ROAM sensors. To establish baseline adherence, for the first week, all participants will be blinded to feedback from the ROAM system (including oxygen usage times and oxygen saturation levels); a special code will disable feedback on the local system, including the adherence displays and notifications. After one week, the oxygen usage times will be averaged, and used as a baseline of adherence. Control participants will continue to be blinded to the ROAM feedback for the next four weeks. After the first week, the ROAM group participants will be instructed to enter a code to enable the ROAM user feedback display on the concentrator and portable tank systems. These participants will be instructed to take pulse oximetry readings as they usually do using the ROAM system's included oximeter. A minimum of two readings per day will be encouraged by built-in alerts on the system. They will continue using the system, while receiving feedback on daily adherence rates and oxygen saturation levels, for the 4-week study duration. The average daily oxygen use times over the four-week study period will be computed, and use times for the ROAM group will be compared to those of the control group. At the beginning and end of the study, patients will complete a questionnaire to assess attitudes toward treatment. The primary outcome metric will be adherence rates (% adherent = actual treatment time/prescribed treatment time) of the oxygen therapy. The secondary outcome metric will be attitude towards treatment, as assessed via questionnaires.