While all the sleep medicine sessions—live and prerecorded—are of value to CHEST members, Sunita Kumar, MD, FCCP, CHEST Sleep Medicine NetWork Steering Committee Vice Chair, highlighted several “can’t-miss” sessions that are novel and extremely pertinent this year. 

The live session Understanding the Opioid Epidemic on Sunday, October 18, at 1:45 pm, discusses the opioid epidemic in general and the impact of opioids on critical care and sleep, which is clinically relevant at the moment, said Dr. Kumar, pulmonary and critical care medicine professor, pulmonary/critical care fellowship program director, medical director for the sleep program at Loyola University Medical Center.

Implementing the recently released guidelines for obesity hypoventilation will be discussed in Obesity Hypoventilation and Noninvasive Ventilation: Executing the Guidelines on Tuesday, October 20, at 2:30 pm, which is another “hot topic” in sleep care.

The prerecorded session on Improving Sleep Quality for Hospitalized Patients will discuss how poor sleep quality can have an impact on recovery in the ICU and beyond. 

“We often think of sleep and impact of poor sleep quality on long-term health care outcomes in the patients we see in our outpatient clinics,” she said. “However, sleep quality can have an impact on the outcomes for the inpatients as well.”

“We often think of sleep and impact of poor sleep quality on long-term health care outcomes in the patients we see in our outpatient clinics. However, sleep quality can have an impact on the outcomes for the inpatients as well.”

Preparing for sleep questions on boards—Sleep for the Pulmonary Board (Part 1): Acing the Sleep Respiratory-related Questions and Sleep for the Pulmonary Board (Part 2): Nonrespiratory Sleep Board-like Questions—are two other popular sessions brought back this year as prerecorded sessions. In addition, as a woman, Dr. Kumar is very interested in learning more about gender disparities in sleep medicine and is looking forward to the prerecorded session Sleep Disorders in Women Across the Lifespan.

Kara Dupuy-McCauley, MD, a fellow-in-training representative on the Sleep NetWork, submitted a case-based discussion session on PAP and advanced PAP downloads, which should be of value to seasoned practitioners and trainees, Dr. Kumar said. Case-based Learning: Difficult PAP Downloads is a live session on Sunday, October 18 at 12:30 pm. 

Another prerecorded session, Sleep and Substances: From Caffeine to Marijuana, is increasingly relevant with the legalization of marijuana in many states.

“We are beginning to hear our patients ask us about using marijuana for their sleep problems,” she said. “The session on sleep and substances will discuss marijuana and other over-the-counter options patients sometimes rely on.”