The American Sleep Medicine Foundation: New Resources, New Structure, New Goals

Abstract

THE AMERICAN SLEEP MEDICINE FOUNDATION (ASMF) WAS CREATED BY THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF SLEEP MEDICINE (AASM) IN 1998, GROWING OUT of the AASM's commitment to advancing the fields of sleep research and sleep medicine. The seeds for the foundation were planted, however, when the AASM was formed more than 30 years ago. When the AASM was established in 1975, its founders agreed that the organization should combine a sleep-center focus with an emphasis on clinical practice and research.1 This fundamental commitment to sleep science led the AASM to partner with the Sleep Research Society in forming the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS), which publishes the journal SLEEP and organizes the SLEEP Annual Meeting of the APSS. Now in its 31st volume, SLEEP is recognized as the leading scientific journal in the field with an impact factor of 5.126 that places it in the top six percent of more than 6,100 journals ranked in the Journal Citation Reports Science Edition 2006.2 The SLEEP Annual Meeting is the premier gathering of sleep scientists in the world, with more than 1,100 scientific abstracts presented this past June at SLEEP 2007 in Minneapolis, Minn. At each annual meeting the AASM also presents the William C. Dement Academic Achievement Award, which recognizes members of the sleep field who have displayed exceptional initiative and progress in the area of academic sleep research, and the Young Investigator Award, which honors the outstanding contributions of young sleep scientists. Recognizing the insufficient level of funding that was available to sleep scientists, the AASM board of directors, led by Dr. Wolfgang Schmidt-Nowara formed the ASMF to provide tangible support for the advancement of sleep research. Originally called the Sleep Medicine Education and Research Foundation (then known as SMERF), the goal of the ASMF was to support education as well as clinical and basic research. The ASMF awarded its first grants in 2000, and among the research supported by these inaugural grants were studies at the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University that provided preliminary data for major studies subsequently funded by the National Institutes of Health. Since its inception the ASMF has awarded nearly $3 million to fund 37 projects ranging from computational modeling of the human pharyngeal airway to genomics of the zebrafish hypocretin/narcolepsy pathway. The results of these studies have been published in prestigious journals such as SLEEP,3 Journal of the American Medical Association,4 and the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.5 Young investigators were able to work with mentors at the most respected educational institutions, including Harvard University (5 grants), the University of Pennsylvania (5 grants) and Stanford University (3 grants). In 2007 the ASMF awarded funding of “Portable Monitoring in the Diagnosis and Management of Obstructive Sleep Apnea” to a consortium of researchers led by Case Western Reserve University. This large-scale, multi-center, randomized, head-to-head study comparing unattended portable monitoring and auto-titrating positive airway pressure with attended polysomnography will produce much-needed scientific evidence that will be of critical importance to the field. The AASM provides the funding for all of the foundation's administrative costs and has funded most of the ASMF grants. A few projects have been funded by unrestricted industry grants, including an ongoing study of sleep in heart-failure patients. Individual donations and a portion of the proceeds from the annual Discovering the Secrets of Sleep fundraising dinner also have supported the ASMF. The AASM contributed $500,000 to the ASMF in 2007 for the establishment of an endowment to support future research efforts. This is in addition to $360,000 in grant support the AASM already committed to the foundation for 2007. The ASMF also received a recent donation of $2 million from the American Board of Sleep Medicine for the creation of an endowment, separate from the AASM endowment, for future initiatives. In August 2007 the ASMF Board of Directors met to assess the foundation's resources, adopt changes to its bylaws, and refocus its goals. The Board created an Executive Board charged with development of application materials, grant review and management, budget development and fundraising. The members appointed to the Executive Board are: Richard Berry, MD, President of the ASMF David Bruce, DDS, MD, Treasurer of the ASMF Andrew Chesson Jr., MD, Chair, Academic Affairs Committee Nancy Collop, MD, AASM Director at Large Flavia Consens, MD, Chair, Fellowship Training Committee Jason Mateika, PhD, Chair, Research Committee Michael Sateia, MD, AASM Member at Large The Executive Board will support the day-to-day operation of the ASMF and become a resource for strategies and ideas to advance the fields of sleep medicine and sleep research, while the Board of Directors will continue to provide oversight and direction for the ASMF. At the August meeting the Board of Directors also adopted these new mission and vision statements that will provide direction for future initiatives of the ASMF: