The sleep medicine fellowship training program at the University of
Nebraska Medical Center recently received national accreditation from the
American Academy of Sleep Medicine. The program is the only one of its
kind in the Midwest.
“Sleep medicine is a relatively new area of medicine and we’re extremely
pleased to be one of the few nationally accredited programs in the country,”
said Teri Bowman, M.D., assistant professor of medicine and program director
of the Sleep Medicine Fellowship program.
Only 18 other sleep fellowship programs exist in the country, according
to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. A one-year sleep fellowship
program is required for sleep medicine boards. In all, Nebraska currently
has eight active, practicing board certified sleep physicians.
At UNMC, the first six months of sleep medicine training will take place
during the three-year pulmonary-critical care fellowship program at UNMC.
All first-year pulmonary-critical care fellows are encouraged to take the
one-month sleep medicine rotation as an elective. Each year, one or two
fellows who successfully complete the month-long course will be selected
for the one-year sleep medicine fellowship alternate tract program, which
is a multi-disciplinary approach involving neurology, pulmonary medicine,
psychiatry, psychology, pediatrics, ENT and dentistry.
During the course of the program, the sleep fellow will learn to analyze
and interpret polysomnograms, participate in a sleep journal club, present
at case conferences, provide clinical care for patients with sleep disorders
and develop a sleep research area.
In his June 27 letter notifying UNMC of its two-year accreditation status,
M. Safwan Badr, M.D., chair of the Fellowship Training Committee, wrote:
“The Fellowship Training Committee is very impressed with the quality of
your program, especially the faculty’s extensive experience and outstanding
supervision. You clearly produce outstanding sleep medicine physicians.”
Dr. Bowman, who joined UNMC in July 2000, wasted no time establishing
the fellowship training program. In October 2000, a UNMC committee approved
the proposal and Dr. Bowman immediately sought accreditation.
“To reach accreditation in less than one year is unprecedented,” she
said. “We had no program, no model and built the program completely from
scratch.”
There are more than 80 diagnoses in the field of sleep medicine, said
Dr. Bowman, who plans to develop a sleep medicine research program at UNMC.
The most common disorder is sleep apnea, followed by periodic limb movement
disorder.
“You have to play the role of a detective in diagnosing patients with
sleep problems,” Dr. Bowman said. “A lot of people are putting sleep behind
all other activities. It’s become a national issue. Insufficient sleep
is the most common cause of daytime fatigue.”
More than 40 million Americans suffer from sleep disorders and struggle
to stay alert at home, in school, on the job and on the road. Sleep is
vital to a person’s health and well being, yet, a majority of American
adults (63 percent) do not get the recommended eight hours of sleep needed
for good health, safety and optimum performance, according to a 2001 National
Sleep Foundation poll. Fatigue contributes to more than 100,000 highway
crashes, causing 71,000 injuries and 1,500 deaths each year in the United
States alone.
“In the past medical schools were notoriously poor in educating in the
areas of sleep medicine because not enough was known about how it impacts
society,” Dr. Bowman said. “Today, we know that a good night’s sleep is
a necessity, not a luxury. Through the fellowship program, physicians will
learn to inquire about a person’s sleeping habits and intervene when problems
exist.”
Dr. Bowman’s own interest in sleep medicine evolved during a pulmonary-critical
care fellowship at Yale University, where she met a sleep specialist and
learned that most sleep disorders are easily treatable.
“It’s a great shot in the arm to improve a person’s life by intervening
with their sleep problem,” Dr. Bowman said.