Hi Everyone!

It is really important to see a doctor who is is a Diplomat of the American Board of Sleep Medicine.  While that does not guarantee their competency in treating you, at least they will be more informed in the area of sleep disorders.  By the same token, many good sleep labs do not have their accreditations (the two I have used over the years are just getting around to getting theirs), but having it lets you know they have a certain level of expertise.  Here are the links to the associations which provide accreditations for doctors and sleep labs.  These sites describe the requirements for accreditation and lists those doctors and sleep labs which are accredited (or a Diplomat).

The organization which accredits sleep labs:
http://www.aasmnet.org/

American Board of Sleep Medicine
http://www.absm.org/

Vicki


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Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent.
Marilyn Von Savant

That which does not kill you makes you stronger-Friedrich Nietzsche
Friedrich must of had apnea.

Find an accredited sleep center here:

http://www.sleepcenters.org/

tim050001 wrote:

Find an accredited sleep center here:

http://www.sleepcenters.org/

Not quite true. At that link you can find MEMBERS of the AASM. All members are accredited, but not all accredited sleep centers are members. So in other words, there are many sleep centers that ARE accredited by the AASM but ARE NOT listed on that site.  

Nearly gave me a heart attack, thinking my sleep center was mis-representing its credentials, until I emailed the AASM and they told me that.


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hmm.  Thats kind of dissapointing.  But thanks for pointing it out!

I personally as a sleep lab owner think these Sleep Lab Accreditations are nothing more than money making scheme, please let me explain... The persons that come to accredit a sleep lab are not Doctors Boarded in Sleep Medicine.(1) Second the accrediting criteria is of normal business practice.(3)If this was an act to protect the patient of misdiagnose the service would be free rather than 10-15k. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Also I want to comment that NO it is not important to see your doctor to rule whether you have sleep apnea or any other disorder, why? I’ll tell you, most doctors are basing their analysis of your sleep study from what the diagnostic tool and the technician in her notes wrote... Not to mention a compressed report from average 749 pages to 5-7 page analysis report put together by a scorer. The Interpreting "DOCTOR" scans through just to pick up any PVC's dangerous Desats. If you ask me the BEST person to tell you what is wrong with your sleep habits is the Polysmnographer{night tech}...
Thank you