Detroit... the final report

The dust is settling from my trip to Detroit and the NFL Player health screening project with the Living Heart Foundation. I made a number of contacts that have potential to move the association in several important directions.

There are several retired players who are involved in minority health initiatives. Looking at the related web sites I don't any reference to sleep apnea. OSA disportionately affects people of color and to the extent that their untreated sleep apnea can be addressed, it may have a beneficial impact on other chronic conditions that are shortening their lives... heart disease, diabetes, obesity, etc.


Then there are the active and retired players themselves. This is a special population of people, who, due to their large size are at a greater risk of sleep apnea than the normal population. The ASAA can certainly do more to educate the players about sleep apnea and guide them along the path to better health.

The national office of the players association is located in Washington DC, it should be easy to develop a relationship with them and become the resource for educational material and support options for the retired and the soon-to-be retired players.

The trip was also an opportunity meet and get to know several significant contributors in the area of research on sleep apnea. These personal relationships will be important as more forward on these various fronts.

The "Super Bowl" project was an investment. A significant investment that will require additional effort on my part if there are dividends to reaped. It will be some time before I can see those dividends and whether in the end it was a worthy investment.

I return to one last image from the trip, the one of me and Lem Barney. Lem, who is a member of the Football Hall of Fame, spoke at the community health screening on Sunday and at the retired player's screening on Thursday. A spry and energetic man, whose enthusiasm and joyfulness was infectious. I am glad to have met him and had opportunity to be uplifted by his positive outlook on life.

This journal is an opportunity for me to report and reflect on my work as the executive director of the American Sleep Apnea Association when I am on the road for the association.

I hope you find it informative and entertaining.

Detroit Day four and five

The health screening was quite an experience. There were dozens of retired football players passing through screening stations on the second floor of the Center for Athletic Medicine at the Henry Ford Hospital. I was set up near the stations where the unattended portable monitoring equipment was being distributed. For those retired players interested in being screened for sleep apnea, I had a folder of material for them. There were even retired players who were in treatment for sleep apnea and they were interested in the packets of material.

It was like this for two days, Thursday and Friday... there were more players on Thursday.

The press conference on Thursday proved a valuable experience. I met and spoke with the Surgeon General of Michigan (a position unique to Michigan). She expressed a willingness to help get 03/30/06 proclaimed Sleep Apnea Awareness Day in Michigan. I also met and spoke with the director of retired players for the NFLPA. There are possibilities of more outreach to this community.

One of many highlights of these past two days was meeting Virend Somers. He is in the thick of the research on heart disease and sleep apnea. An important player in all this, for sure.

I also had the opportunity to visit the sleep lab at Henry Ford Hospital and sit in on a discussion of evaluating sleep studies for central apneas. I am reminded that medicine is both an art and a science... and proportion of each can vary widely.

It is too soon to draw any conclusions about this venture, but I can say that I made some important contacts and if I will follow through... they will advance the cause of the ASAA into new and important areas.

That's all for now.

Detroit Day Three

Today, Wednesday is an off day, so I had a chance to catch up on emails and phone calls. I also visited a couple of the A.W.A.K.E. group coordinators here in the area... call it a Good Will Tour.

Yesterday started, early, 5:45 am to be exact, the concern of the folks with the Living Heart Foundation was that they needed to have their equipment for the health screening at the Detroit Lions Academy set up 7:30 am and there might be heavy traffic heading into the city.

Monday evening brought a new member to the group, though he had participated in an NFL screening last year in Atlanta - Gary Burley, a retired football player.

Gary had not been in on the discussions about the departure time on Tuesday morning and when it came to leave he was not up yet. So in the interest of helping out the cause I offered to stay back and wait for Gary to get dressed and ready to go.

By 6:45 Gary was ready to go, though not entirely happy about having to push off at that hour. Fortunately, the traffic was not too bad and the directions I had were clear. We arrived by 7:45, well in advance of the middle school students from the Academy that were participating in the screening... which compromised, height and weight, cholesterol and glucose, blood pressure and sonocardiogram.

Gary and I had a nice chat. His interest in the Living Heart Foundation has to do with his desire to further cardiovascular health education in the African-American community, especially as it concerns athletes. When he learned who I was, he was very interested in talking further about working together to raise awareness about sleep apnea - Amen to that!

Gary was not the only football player to make the scene at the Lions Academy. Also present was Rich Strenger, who had played for the Detroit Lions. There was also an active player - Cory Schlesinger who plays full back. While was not entirely interested in the educational material I had on display, Rich was and in fact picked up an educational bulletin when I described some symptoms that he is experiencing now that the exercise routine has curtailed.

While the children were interested in the gold colored lapel pins I had for people... members of the school staff were particularly interested what I had to offer and were pleased that I left copies of bulletins, newsletters and brochures for them to distribute at a future educational session for parents.

The highlight of the morning at the Academy was the gift of an Automated External Defribulator (AED) from Phillips to the school... an irony was that in same room, a 13 year old had drop dead the year before from sudden cardic arrest.

Once we finished there we headed back to downtown Detroit... there are certainly many sad looking neighborhoods in Detroit. DC looks like the Ritz by comparison... oh well.

There was a several pause between the morning activity and the evening Continuing Medical Education (CME)program. That gave all a chance to regroup and rest a bit.

We drove to Troy for the CME programand I laid out a number of folds with copies of educational material (bulletins, newsletters and brochure). I was pleased with how many of the physicians attending the event picked up a folder.

The evening included more retired football players, though I was not quick enough to get photgraphs to include here.

The presentations that evening included a talk by David Hudgel, MD from the Henry Ford Hospital on sleep apnea and atheletes. It was an interesting presentation... can't say I learned anything. It was well presented and there much interest.

The day concluded after 10:30 pm... it is about an hour from Troy to Ann Arbor. Gary was my car companion the entire day and the way back to the hotel we had another good talk. I think I made a new friend.

Thursday and Friday promise to be very busy and will be my opportunity to speak with retired players about OSA. I'll be back.

02/04/06 - I had hoped to have images for this entry by now (all the more reason to get my own camera). I will post them when they arrive.

02/19/06 - Images from this event are posted under entry Detroit... final report.