Specialized care improves treatment outcomes in patients with sleep apnea

Treatment adherence is better when care is provided by sleep specialists and accredited sleep centers

2014-03-14

(Press-News.org) DARIEN, IL – A new study of patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) found that treatment outcomes were better when patients received care from sleep specialists and accredited sleep centers.

Results show that sleep apnea patients who received care from board certified sleep medicine physicians and accredited sleep centers were two times more likely to be adherent to positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy than those who received care from non-accredited centers and non-certified physicians. Patient satisfaction also was associated with physician certification, and timeliness of care was better at accredited centers.

"We have demonstrated under real-world conditions that sleep center accreditation and sleep medicine board certification are important determinants of patient-centered quality metrics such as adherence to PAP therapy, patient satisfaction, patient education and timeliness of care delivery," said lead author and principal investigator Dr. Sairam Parthasarathy, associate professor of medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Ariz. "These results suggest that health policy decisions should be directed toward care pathways involving accredited facilities and board-certified physicians."

The study results appear in the March 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, which is published by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

"Board certified sleep medicine physicians and the team of health care professionals at accredited sleep centers have the specialized training and expertise to provide high quality, patient-centered care for people with a sleep illness," said American Academy of Sleep Medicine President Dr. M. Safwan Badr.

Parthasarathy collaborated with Dr. Shyam Subramanian and Dr. Stuart Quan to conduct the study, which involved 502 patients with OSA at four sleep centers. Participants received an objective diagnostic evaluation using overnight polysomnography and completed validated questionnaires. Objective PAP therapy adherence was measured three months after therapy initiation.

According to the authors, this is the first multicenter, prospective, comparative effectiveness study performed in the real-world setting to show favorable effects of physician certification and center accreditation on objective PAP adherence in patients with OSA.

INFORMATION: The American Academy of Sleep Medicine accredited a sleep center for the first time in 1977, and today there are more than 2,500 AASM-accredited sleep centers across the country. The AASM estimates that there are about 7,500 board-certified sleep specialists in the U.S. The American Board of Sleep Medicine (ABSM) certified sleep specialists through 2006, when the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) assumed responsibility for the administration of the sleep medicine subspecialty exam under the oversight of the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS). To request a copy of the study, "A Multicenter Prospective Comparative Effectiveness Study of the Effect of Physician Certification and Center Accreditation on Patient-Centered Outcomes in Obstructive Sleep Apnea," or to arrange an interview with the study author or an AASM spokesperson, please contact Communications Coordinator Lynn Celmer at 630-737-9700, ext. 9364, or lcelmer@aasmnet.org.

The monthly, peer-reviewed Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine is the official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, a professional membership society that improves sleep health and promotes high quality patient centered care through advocacy, education, strategic research, and practice standards. The AASM encourages patients to talk to their doctor about sleep problems or visit http://www.sleepeducation.com for a searchable directory of AASM-accredited sleep centers.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

NASA's TRMM satellite eyeing Tropical Cyclone Gillian's rebirth

2014-03-14

VIDEO: On March 14, 2014, at 1 a.m. EDT this simulated 3-D flyby of the TRMM satellite showed rain falling at the rate of over 116 mm/4.5 inches per hour (red),... Click here for more information. Heavy rainfall rates and powerful towering thunderstorms were spotted in what appeared to be the rebirth process of Tropical Cyclone Gillian in the Gulf of Carpentaria between Australia's Northern Territory and Queensland. The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite called TRMM ...

Parents receiving heart disease diagnosis for infants need better information

2014-03-14

LOS ANGELES – Based on a survey of parents of children with congenital heart disease, physicians delivering the diagnosis need to do a better job of showing compassion, ensuring parents understand all their options and providing easily understandable information, according to a new study published in the February edition of the journal, Pediatric Cardiology. Researchers at Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute (LA BioMed) worked with the California Heart Connection, a nonprofit organization of parents of children with congenital heart disease, to conduct an online ...

Tension triggers muscle building

2014-03-14

In order to move the body, skeletal muscles are pulling on the skeleton. For efficient muscle and skeletal movements it is essential that the muscle contracts only along a defined axis, for instance for the leg movement along the thigh. Such a directed contraction is achieved by the myofibrils that span through the entire length of the muscle. At both ends, the myofibrils are anchored to the tendon cells, which themselves are linked to the skeleton. "Thereby, the entire force is transduced from the muscle to the skeleton," Frank Schnorrer describes. How can the regular ...

NASA sees an extra-tropical Lusi north of New Zealand

2014-03-14

NASA's Aqua satellite caught an infrared picture of Tropical Cyclone Lusi after it transitioned into an extra-tropical storm, north of New Zealand. Gale Warnings are in effect in Northern New Zealand. NASA's Aqua satellite passed over Lusi on March 13 at 13:41 UTC/9:41 a.m. EDT and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument captured infrared data on the storm that revealed it had become a cold-core system. When a storm becomes extra-tropical and its core changes from warm to cold, the strongest winds spread out and the storm expands. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center ...

Salad at concession stands!?

2014-03-14

Pep-rallies, the marching band, cheers and chants, and savory, indulgent foods sold at the concession stand are all beloved features of the American high school sports tradition. In contrast to the nutrition requirements on breakfast and lunches sold in school cafeterias, foods sold at concession stands do not follow the standard nutrition guidelines because they are typically sold for fundraising purposes. Is there something that can be done to improve the healthful features of concession stand food, and preserve the profits they generate? According to this new study ...

Older age at onset of Type 1 diabetes associated with lower brain connectivity

2014-03-14

SAN FRANCISCO, March 14, 2014 – Children and adolescents older than age 8 at the onset of type 1 diabetes had weaker brain connectivity when tested later in life relative to those who had earlier ages of diagnosis, University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences researchers discovered. The findings, presented today at the American Psychosomatic Society's annual meeting, were made by analyzing the brain scans of 44 middle-age adults diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as children. "Adolescence is a time when the brain matures and makes connections in networks responsible ...

Study: Losing or gaining weight after joint replacement affects how well patients do

2014-03-14

While many overweight patients have the best intentions to lose weight after joint replacement, a study at Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) finds that although some are able to achieve this goal, equal numbers of patients actually gain weight after hip or knee replacement. Researchers also determined that patients who lose weight do better in terms of function and activity level two years down the road. "Our findings represent the first report to present evidence that weight loss is associated with improved clinical outcomes, while weight gain is associated with inferior ...

Southeastern fires consist of prescribed and wild

2014-03-14

According to the Southern Area Coordination Center, which monitors and coordinates response to incidents throughout the Southeast, there are currently seven large fires burning in this area of the country. Six of them are located in the state of Oklahoma and the seventh is in the Gulf area of Louisiana. These fires currently have burned over 7,600 acres. The majority of the fires on this image, though, are not wildfires, but are prescribed fires. The Chicasaw Journal of Mississippi wrote this regarding prescribed fires: "Prescribed fire, also known as controlled burning, ...

Researchers find significant increase in painkillers prescribed to US adults in the ER

2014-03-14

WASHINGTON (March 14, 2014) —George Washington University (GW) researchers report dramatic increases in prescriptions of opioid analgesics, such as Percocet, Vicodin, oxycodone and Dilaudid, during U.S. emergency department visits from 2001 to 2010. These findings were not explained by higher visit rates for painful conditions, which only increased modestly during the time period. This report was published today in the journal Academic Emergency Medicine. "This trend is especially concerning given dramatic increases in opioid-related overdoses and fatalities in recent ...

In the lab, scientists coax E. coli to resist radiation damage

2014-03-14

MADISON, Wis. – Capitalizing on the ability of an organism to evolve in response to punishment from a hostile environment, scientists have coaxed the model bacterium Escherichia coli to dramatically resist ionizing radiation and, in the process, reveal the genetic mechanisms that make the feat possible. The study, published in the online journal eLife, provides evidence that just a handful of genetic mutations give E. coli the capacity to withstand doses of radiation that would otherwise doom the microbe. The findings are important because they have implications for better ...

Specialized care improves treatment outcomes in patients with sleep apnea

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: