 
A primary factor differentiating the approach taken in this project is the focus on leaving responsibility for sleep-stage decisions in the hands of the polysomnographic technician operating the software, while automating as much or as little of the routine analysis as specified by the technician. The software is to be adaptive, in the sense that it may be configured for any set of included analysis criteria using pre-stored or user-generated templates, analysis procedures, and decision weightings. The technician never directly manipulates these weighting factors, responding instead to on-screen graphical aids, decision trees and dialogs offering customization options.
The software will also operate out-of-the-box in a generic mode for routine clinic environments. To increase the utility of the software more data file formats from original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and third-party vendors will be included. A portion of the on-line documentation is in the form of tutorials which take the user through specific examples of program usage. The tutorials will include instructions on making new templates from data samples, and customizing the analysis criteria for individual technician analysis preferences.
Integrated into the sleep program, hypertext training sets for polysomnographic technologists will feature self-paced sessions accessible at graduated levels of difficulty. Material from standard teaching manuals has been licensed and incorporated, and uses the scrolling graph capabilities of the sleep staging program as part of the training and evaluation. These on-line training sets are to be provided as an integral part of a commercial release of the sleep analysis program.
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