Research: My goal is to improve the lives of people with sleep disordered breathing. My colleagues and I hope to do so by making care of sleep apnea patients more precise, using unique patient physiology, prognosis and treatment responsiveness. Doing so we anticipate will allow for development of novel, effective and tolerable treatments.
We have identified unique polysomnographic phenotypes of sleep apnea patients using cluster analysis, that are associated with differing clinical characteristics, co-morbid diseases and different rates of incident cardiovascular events or death. Currently, my team is conducting an NIH sponsored research study to identifying physiological traits (such as ease with which individuals arouse from sleep) that predict continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) effectiveness and contribute to development of cardiovascular disease. I am also involved in an NIH sponsored, randomized, comparative effectiveness trial of the impact of usual care, oxygen or CPAP have on ventricular function and cardiopulmonary functional capacity in heart failure with central sleep apnea (a unique phenotype).
Mentors: Klar Yaggi MD, Andrew Wellman MD, PhD (Harvard), Scott Sands, PhD (Harvard), Nancy Redeker RN, PhD (UCONN)
Cardiovascular Diseases; Sleep Apnea Syndromes; Cluster Analysis; Polysomnography; Sleep Apnea, Central; Continuous Positive Airway Pressure