Medical products company ResMed is tripling down on using patients' health data to help them achieve better health outcomes, its chief executive says.
The ASX-listed company, which announced a 15 per cent rise in profit on Friday, has collected four billion nights of medical sleep data from people using ResMed's ventilators to treat sleep-related breathing disorders such as sleep apnea and has been analysing it.
"Our machines are learning very quickly, and we're doing some amazing things in understanding sleep apnea patients," chief executive Mick Farrell said.
The ventilators automatically transmit data to ResMed, although Mr Farrell said it was easy to put them in airplane mode so they didn't.
"It's all about privacy, it's all about security, it's all about taking care of a person how they want to be taken care of," the Sydney native said.
Over 1.8 million apnea patients have signed up for ResMed's myAir app, giving the company permission to analyse their sleep data so they can receive personalised coaching tips on how to get a better night's sleep, he said.
"We've got nine million, 100 per cent cloud-connectable medical devices on people's bedside tables. It's the most expensive real estate in the world. It's not here, overlooking Sydney harbour, this is cheap," Mr Farrell said.
"Your bedside table - everyone wants to be there. Apple would love you to put your phone there and have an app listening to you all night.
"We're already there, and we're a medical company, so we're not going to sell your data, we're going to use the information to help you use your device to stay out of hospital. That's the laser focus of ResMed."
The San Diego-based company is "tripling down" on this kind of coaching with its recent $US225 million ($A321 million) acquisition of Propeller Health, which provides similar advice for people with COPD and asthma via small sensors that attach to patients' inhalers and pair with a mobile app.
By tracking medication use and providing personal feedback, the app helps users improve adherence and avoid hospitalisations, ResMed says.
"We've got a big ambition. We're going to change a quarter of a billion lives in the year 2025," Mr Farrell said.
It's an approach that appears to be working for the company.
ResMed announced on Friday that it lifted revenue in the three months ended March 31 by 12 per cent, to $US662.2 million ($A952.2 m).
ResMed said it made $US157 million ($A224 million) in profit, up 15 per cent from the same period in 2018.
ResMed's board of directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of 37 US cents per share.
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