The Geneva Lake Study Update : An Overview of Home Non-Invasive Ventilation 15 Years Later

A multicenter cross-sectional observational study was conducted in the counties of Geneva and Vaud (1'271'957 inhabitants in 2016 and 1'288'090 inhabitants in 2017 ) and included all subjects under home NIV followed by the two university hospitals of Geneva and Lausanne (HUG and CHUV), one private regional general hospital (La Tour Hospital), one pulmonary rehabilitation center (Rolle Hospital) and 38 pulmonologists in private practice (for a total of 43, 18 in Geneva and 20 in Vaud). In Switzerland home NIV can be prescribed, initiated and followed by a pulmonologist in private practice without referring to a hospital center. The coordinating institution for this project was the Geneva University Hospital (HUG). The investigator's goals were to update the prevalence of home NIV, the description of the population involved, the devices used, their settings, compliance, and a large array of technical data to provide a complete photography of home NIV in an area with 30 years of experience in this field. We also aimed to collect data regarding pursuit or interruption of NIV and survival during observation period.