Being in Washington has its advantages...

Say what you will about being in the craziness that is our Nation's Capital, but (living and) working in Washington, DC does have certain advantages that folks living in other parts of the country can only dream about... for example:

A couple weeks back I learned that Surgeon General Carmona would be speaking at a National Press Club (NPC) luncheon. The luncheons are frequently televised on the cable channel CSPAN. The NPC is about four blocks from my office. I sent an email and reserved a space at the luncheon and went. Not having heard the S.G. speak before it was a excellent opportunity to learn what his goals are and to hear them from his mouth and not some press release. It was also the chance to establish a personal connection with the man, not so much to make my case for the importance of diagnosis and treatment of sleep apnea as the way to cure the ills of the nation... but close.

Moments like this do occur elsewhere in the country, just not as often and when they are four blocks away and they can benefit the cause... I will jump on them PDQ.

What will come of this opportunity is still be determined, but being able to say...you may remember me from the NPC luncheon earlier this month and I wanted to follow up on something you said... gives you a leg up for sure.

09/27/2006 - Update

I learned not too long after this presentation, Dr. Carmona stepped down as the Surgeon General - evidently he differing points of view on the question of tobacco with his boss - oh well. There seems to be some interest in S.G. office on the issue of sleep, now if we can only get them to focus on sleep apnea.

Sleep 2006 part four - wrapping up

A couple of other items to mention before closing out the 2006 Sleep meeting...

The poster session - I mentioned in the past the importance of viewing the posters to get a head's up on where research is going. The Sleep meeting had numerous posters of interest. Viewing them gave me an idea... one that I am in the process of working out now (stay tuned).

The A.W.A.K.E. Coordinator's meeting - this one of two meetings we hold concurrently with the Sleep meeting (the other being the Industry Roundtable meeting). The coordinator's meeting is an opportunity for existing coordinator of support groups in our network to meet and discuss the finer points of running a support group for apnea patients - and to get some support themselves. This year we had the good fortunate of having Colleen Bazzani, RPGST from Methodist Hospital in Minneapolis as our speaker. Thanks Colleen!

This is the third meeting I attend as the ED of the ASAA and it was the best ever. I am getting to know the folks involved and getting known by them. The sleep community, particularly the sleep apnea section, is still small enough that you can know just about everyone involved. More importantly than knowing the participants, is knowing the issues and I am getting a handle on them as well.

I will leave you with an image from the exhibit hall... it is from the booth of a large pharma company promoting their new sleep aid. Yep, that is a woman in a night gown laying in a big letter "o". Incredible.

Travel starts again in August... I will be back before then with updates.

Sleep 2006 part three

There were many presentations that I wanted to attend, but it is difficult to do when there is an exhibit booth to staff.

There are a couple that I managed to get to that I found interesting and will mention here...

There was a presentation on the Institute of Medicine study. Try as we might to focus the national attention on issues of sleep and sleep deprivation - it usually takes the publication of a document like the IOM report on, you guess it, sleep disorders and sleep deprivation to collar the attention of those with the power to do something on a national scale.

The report was published in April '06 and members of the committee have taken it on the road to make people aware it. One of their stops was the Sleep meeting.

The report is a hefty 400+ pages with a lot of background and numerous recommendations. The one section of particular importance the ASAA is on Chapter Six Ensuring Adequate Diagnosis and Treatment: Access, Capacity, and Technology Development, which discusses the need for new validating new and existing alternate diagnostic tools for the diagnosis of sleep apnea. You would think, no argument here, but you would be mistaken. The leadership of the AASM, hosts of the Sleep meeting, have resisted the use of portable monitoring for the diagnosis of sleep apnea - their reason: not enough good science to support it. But in the upcoming issue of their Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine they publish Portable Monitoring in the Diagnosis of Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Which just happens to the issue where our Open Letter to the Sleep Community concerning the need for greater access to diagnosis for OSA is needed to meet the public health crisis.

Interestingly, members of the panel making the presentation asked for those in the audience interested in helping to advance the recommendations of the report identify themselves. I had left the meeting earlier, fortunately one our board members was present and signed us up!

The second presentation I was able to attend, was one on complex sleep apnea (formerly known as mixed apnea). Complex apnea is the form of sleep apnea that combines obstructive and central apnea.

There is not much written about complex apnea, I suspect that as the field sleep medicine continues to evolve we will hear a lot more about it.

Next - Sleep wrap-up

Sleep 2006 part two - The SHOW

For an apnea patient I can imagine that entering an exhibit hall filled with CPAP machines and masks could be like a child entering a toy store near Christmas (maybe not).

I can't say that I have become jaded having been to several exhibits of sleep apnea therapeutic devices, but with some of the machines out there the changes are subtle and it takes a user to appreciate them fully.

But then, there are the new kids on the block... folks who come up something so very different, even I have to stop and say Wow. Last year was Aeiomed's battery-powered machine... the Everest. This year, for me the show stoppers were the mobile CPAP - BreathEx and the new mask - Hybrid. I was familiar with the BreathEx - Tom Hoffman having spent some time on the Apnea Support Forum asking questions and getting input from the participants. I had also gotten a preview at an A.W.A.K.E. meeting I had attended in San Diego.

I was unfamiliar with the HyBrid, in fact I would have missed for all other masks there if there hadn't been a comment on the Forum. Certainly it is a clever design... nasal pillows combined with a full face mask. It is one more example to support my comment - there is a mask for every face and person.

Having an exhibit at the Sleep meeting is very important. If you are in the sleep field as someone who distributes anything to others in the sleep field... if you are not there, you have dropped off the planet (period, full stop). I am not sure I can say that about the other meetings we attend as exhibitors, I can without a doubt say that about Sleep.

Working the booth gives you the opportunity to put a face with many of the voices over the telephone during the course of the year. It is also the chance to make new friends and to make them aware of the work of the organization... yes there are still people out there who don't know about the ASAA.

I enjoy speaking with the physicians and the other exhibitors who stop by the booth to say hello and looking for new material... but my favorites are the sleep techs, the women and men who are on the frontlines of patient care in the field of sleep medicine, many of whom run support groups affiliated with the ASAA through the A.W.A.K.E. Network. I was always happy to give them a gold pin with ASAA logo.

Next the sessions.