In the 2008 Membership Report, AASM President Mary Susan Esther, MD, spells out the challenges and goals in 2009 for the AASM and its members.
In the concluding letter of the membership report, Esther highlighted the following objectives:
• Promote the recognition of sleep specialists as the physicians who are uniquely qualified to provide an accurate diagnosis and appropriate plan of treatment for patients with sleep disorders,
• Emphasize the value of certification and accreditation,
• Ensure that local coverage determination policies for continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy provide a comprehensive framework for the use of unattended portable monitoring and are focused on quality of care for patients,
• Oversee a seamless transition of the behavioral sleep medicine certification exam from the AASM to the American Board of Sleep Medicine,
• Continue to take a lead role in the development of more physician performance measurement sets for the field of sleep medicine,
• Invest in sleep research by providing significant funding opportunities through the American Sleep Medicine Foundation (ASMF), and
• Work toward the establishment of interdisciplinary academic sleep units and seeing that a sleep medicine curriculum is implemented at every medical school in North America.
The bulk of the 15-page report documents the accomplishments of 2008 including those related to clinical standards, advocacy, education, and promoting research. Members can view the many accomplishments of the AASM throughout 2008 in the complete report at www.aasmnet.org.
