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October 2012 – Reports – Sleep Medicine Committee (SMC)

Published in: ESRS Newsletter, October 2012

ESRS Sleep Medicine Committee (SMC)

Current Members (2012 – 2014):

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

Previous Members (2011 – 2012):

Thomas Penzel (Coordinator), Sören Berg, Simone de Lacy, Marie-Pia d’Ortho, Zoran Dogas, Colin Espie, Diego García Borreguero, Patrick Lévy, Teresa Paiva, Dirk Pevernagie, Thomas Pollmächer, Andrea Rodenbeck, Debra Skene, Marco Zucconi

The Sleep Medicine Committee was working much towards the first examination of (grandparents) Somnologists, which took place in Paris on the 4th September 2012. 50 applicants were eligible for the examination. All 50 persons attended the examination in person. 50 multiple-choice questions were distributed to all participants and were completed. All examinees passed the test with a threshold of at least 50% correct answers. Certificates were handed over at the ESRS conference banquet in Paris on the 7th September.

A second and last grandparent examination for physicians to achieve a European “Somnologist” certificate is planned for the next ESRS / ERS congress in Berlin on the 11th April 2013. This gives a chance to those people who missed the examination in Paris last September. The procedures will be similar and a corresponding announcement is published in this newsletter and on the website. Regular applications, including those who missed both grandparent rounds will be considered at the next ESRS congress in 2014 in Tallinn. The rules for that will be specified with precise details in a later newsletter.

In addition, in Tallinn a grandparents round of examination is planned for sleep technologists in close cooperation with the European Sleep Technologist Association.

The “Standards of procedures” publication has been published this year in the Journal of Sleep Research. The “Catalogue of knowledge and skills” publication has been submitted. The next important publication will be the update on the sleep centre accreditation. This is an important issue because it does not only include technical issues which came up after the initial publication in 2006, such as the introduction of the AASM sleep scoring criteria. It may also discuss the different levels of sleep centres that are present in Europe. There are sleep centres that cover all aspects of sleep medicine, including rare disorders, and there are sleep centres that are much more specialized in a few of the most prevalent sleep disorders. A discussion is needed as to whether different categories or levels of sleep centres should be defined.

To continue the alignment of the ESRS somnologist certification with the European Respiratory Society (ERS) HERMES program for respiratory sleep medicine is also an important issue for the next two years.

Thomas Penzel