睡眠中心商業模式之初步探討

Abstract

「日出而作、日落而息」，看似平常的睡眠大約占了人類三分之ㄧ的時間，歷史上許多文學家、哲學家甚至近代的心理學家紛紛提出和睡眠有關的看法或學說，試圖揭開此一神祕的面紗；然隨著時代演進、科技的發展以及醫學的進度， 「睡眠障礙」陸續被定義與發現，同時「睡眠醫學」的興起，也造就了「睡眠中心」如雨後春筍般的成立。

根據相關調查及研究指出，目前睡眠中心床位的供給仍遠不足睡眠障礙患者的需求，而自覺可能有睡眠障礙而確實就診的患者仍屬少數，再再暗示睡眠醫學市場潛力無窮，從醫療院所、健檢機構以及醫療器材業者無不摩拳擦掌、躍躍欲試期盼能左右睡眠醫學的發展，或是從中獲取更大的利益；也有部分業者致力於睡眠檢測產品以及睡眠障礙檢測流程的創新，期盼建立新的商業模式。

藉由資料蒐集、文獻探討及專家與其他利益相關者的深度訪談，本研究發現目前睡眠中心營運發展確實碰到瓶頸，主要係因為睡眠問題「醫療化」所形成的專業壁壘難以跨越，且因健保給付的相關規定導致睡眠中心帶來的利潤有限，所以近年來也未見睡眠中心床位數的增加；研究最後提到在睡眠醫學中，台灣醫療器材廠商可能的發展機會，期盼可以提供有志於睡眠醫學相關領域的業者，在未來產品或相關服務的規劃上可以更迅速、更正確的找到投入資源執行的方向。

“Rise with the lark, and go to bed with the lamb.” Sleep usually takes over around one-third of human’s life. In the past, many writers, philosophers and even psychologists have put forward the views or doctrines on sleep, trying to uncover its mysterious veil; However, with the evolution of the times, the development of technology and the progress of medicine, "sleep disorders" were introduced and defined. In the meanwhile, the rise of "sleep medicine" also caused the "sleep centers" established like mushrooms sprung up.

Based on recent investigations and studies, the supply of sleep center facilities is still far less than the needs of sleep disorders patients. On the other hand, those who went to see doctors are still minority of the sleep disorders population. These facts imply that there is a huge market potential on sleep medicine screening, diagnosis and treatment. From hospitals, health center to medical device vendors they are all gearing up to try to influence the development of sleep medicine, or acquire more profit and revenue from sleep medicine market. Besides, there are still some vendors and institutes are committed to the innovation of sleep screening device and the process, hoping to set up a new business model.

By data collection, literature reviews and interviews with experts, this study found that the operation and development of the Sleep Center indeed encountered a bottleneck, mainly due to the barrier of “sleep disorders medicalization” and the design of the national health insurance policies. Therefore, in recent years there is no increase in the number of beds in the sleep center. In the last session of this study mentioned the possible opportunities for Taiwanese medical device vendors. Hopefully this study could also provide the more accurate suggestion and strategic planning for those vendors who are interested in sleep medicine business.