The PLATO questionnaire is an 11-item, quick, and easy-to-score tool that measures sleep-related experiences over the past week, including tiredness, headaches, snoring, and overall sleep quality, making it suitable for clinical settings.

The American Academy of Sleep Medicine has introduced and validated a new patient-reported outcome tool called PLATO, designed specifically for monitoring treatment response and symptom progression in adults with obstructive sleep apnea.

Available in both paper and electronic formats and written at a 5th-grade reading level, PLATO can be seamlessly integrated into electronic health records and used during clinic visits for ongoing assessment.

This development addresses previous gaps in outcome assessment tools for sleep apnea, offering a practical and validated instrument for clinicians, patients, and health systems to evaluate treatment effectiveness.

Developed in collaboration with ICON and AASM experts, PLATO adheres to FDA guidance, involving multiple phases of testing such as patient interviews, pilot studies, and psychometric validation with over 560 adults with sleep apnea.

The tool demonstrates strong reliability, validity, and the ability to distinguish between different severity levels of sleep apnea and body mass index groups, and it effectively responds to symptom improvements.

The article highlights the potential of PLATO to enhance understanding and management of sleep apnea treatment outcomes, with full validation details published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.