Though we’re only slightly past the halfway point of 2016, here at Sleep Review we’ve begun planning for 2017. I recently crafted the first draft of the 2017 editorial calendar, which outlines the main topics we’ll be covering next year.
As I combed through my memory (and Google Analytics) to determine which subject areas have been the best-received so far in 2016, I realized that many of our most popular stories relate in some way to the multidisciplinary nature of sleep medicine. Of course, we must continue to cover the nuts and bolts of clinical sleep—how to bill for a home sleep test and the newest PAP interface releases, to name a few—but I think we also have a duty to build bridges between myriad disciplines. Sleep Review has a role in chipping away at any walls that separate “outside” knowledge relevant to sleep medicine from getting in and sleep medicine-born knowledge from getting out inasmuch as it is relevant to other specialties and subspecialties.
In this issue, we take that responsibility seriously. In the feature “Pain and Sleep: Exploring the Bidirectional Connection,” our writer interviews experts in pain medicine such as Daniel Carr, MD. Carr says, “I am well aware of the multiple bidirectional relationships between pain and sleep deprivation.” Are sleep medicine clinicians as aware of the relationship between sleep deprivation and pain?
We also include a guest editorial by a sleep technologist who opines that coaches and athletic trainers should deliberately focus on improving athletes’ sleep in order to win more games. Sleep training is mistakenly thought of as “common sense,” says writer Brendan Duffy, RPSGT, and not discussed as the crucial training component that it is. This story soared onto our monthly (Google Analytics-based) e-newsletter “Top 10 Stories of the Month: July 2016,” despite having only been published on our website in mid-July. I hope this means the article has caught the attention of at least a few coaches and sports medicine physicians who can put the information to the best use.
Sree Roy
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Additionally, we share insights from the practice of dental sleep medicine. In “Incorporating Home Sleep Testing into Oral Appliance Therapy,” an editorial advisory board member shares how objective data provided by HST can optimize a dentist’s ability to titrate a mandibular advancement device. Many Sleep Review readers have established relationships with their local physician-dentist counterparts, and I hope our content can assist in deepening those relationships via shared knowledge. I recently hosted a podcast with a dentist and physician who work together, in which Jessela Tan, MD, FAASM, DABSM, DABFM, DABPM, noted, “Oftentimes, treatment for obstructive sleep apnea can involve providers from multiple specialties. Dentists should be a part of that multi-disciplinary team.”
So, what are you planning for 2017? Drop me a line if it’s a story of multidisciplinary success.
Sree Roy is editor of Sleep Review. CONTACT sroy[at]allied360.com
