November 2013 – Reports – Sleep Medicine Committee (SMC)

Published in ESRS Newsletter November 2013

ESRS Sleep Medicine Committee (SMC)

Members (2012 – 2014):

Ludger Grote, Simone de Lacy, Marie-Pia d’Ortho, Zoran Dogas, Colin Espie, Diego Garcia-Borreguero, Walter McNicholas, Lino Nobili, Dirk Pevernagie, Thomas Pollmächer, Andrea Rodenbeck, Marco Zucconi, Thomas Penzel (Chair)

The Sleep Medicine Committee is working towards the next examinations which will take place at the beginning of the next ESRS congress 2014 in Tallinn, on 16th September 2014. The eligibility criteria for regular somnologists are finalised and are now published on the ESRS website. In addition they are published in this newsletter. The beginning (15. January 2014) and the end (3rd April 2014) for the submission of applications is now set and published on the website as well. Any updates will be found there: https://esrs.eu/esrs-examination-in-sleep-medicine/.

In addition to the physician, psychologist, scientist regular exam, a grandparents round of examination is set for sleep technologists in close cooperation with the European Sleep Technologist Association. This grandparents round will take place in Tallinn 2014 as well and will include questions and scoring of sleep and associated events. The eligibility criteria are published on the ESRS website mentioned above and the submission dates are the same.

We ask all interested persons to announce these opportunities to anybody interested to receive a recognition of their knowledge in sleep medicine and we will be glad to have a large number of participants in both exams.

The “Catalogue of knowledge and skills” had been published online in the meantime. The catalogue will be the basis for sleep medicine education courses and for a textbook covering all aspects of sleep medicine required to pass the examination successfully. The Sleep Medicine Committee is currently working on the update of the sleep centre accreditation publication. This update will include technical issues and propose a structure for different levels of sleep centres currently discussed in Europe.

The alignment of the ESRS somnologist certification with the European Respiratory Society (ERS), more specifically the HERMES program for respiratory sleep medicine is continued. One meeting with ESRS and ERS delegates took place during the ERS congress in Barcelona in September.

Thomas Penzel