Clinicians and trainees – don’t miss the Sleep DownUnder clinical stream

3 October 2023

Calling all physicians, advanced trainees and other clinicians! This year the Sleep DownUnder program has a special clinical focus that brings you the latest in cutting edge clinical topics to enhance your practice and hone your skills.

Concurrent streams throughout Friday 10 and Saturday 11 November have been specially curated to offer crucial updates on key clinical topics. 

If you’re looking for a special bonus extra, sign up for the short course on Wednesday 8 November that offers all you need to know about psychology as a sleep clinician (and not a psychologist!)

And don’t forget you can register just for the short course or for single days of the conference program!

Friday 10 November
Upper airway physiology and new treatment options for OSA 
An update on recent advances in our understanding of the pathophysiology of upper airway collapse using big data, how sleep-disordered breathing can best be captured, and how this knowledge is feeding into the design of new therapeutic options for obstructive sleep apnoea. Speakers: Bastien Lechat, Philip Terrill, Fiona Knapman, Amal Osman, Brendon Yee  Chairs: Danny Eckert, Amy Jordan

Restless legs syndrome: more than just a dopamine hit
This session will discuss up to date diagnosis, pathophysiology and therapeutic options in RLS, with a focus on strategies to manage the complex and refractory RLS patient. Speakers: Roo Killick, James Di Michiel, David Cunnington  Chairs: Brendon Yee, Maree Barnes

Oral presentations: Advanced Trainees
Short presentations on nine original research projects from the latest crop of Advanced Trainees. Speakers: Sarah Yeo, Monika Bolger, Stephen Kinder, Adrian Hernest, Ajit Nair, Sophie Jarvis, Amelia Lin, Hiep Pham, Eamonn Moore   Chairs: Christiaan Yu, Annie Walker

Saturday 11 November
Living with narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia in Australia
This session aims to better understand the lived experience of people with a central disorder of hypersomnolence, discuss diagnostic and management challenges and possible solutions for our region, and highlight central disorders of hypersomnolence research and collaboration. An expert-led panel will help facilitate discussion and audience participation will be encouraged. Speakers: Michelle Chadwick, Claire Ellender, Christ Kosky, Sheila Sivam  Panel: Aaron Schokman, Ron Grunstein, Simon Frenkel  Chairs: Brendon Yee, Sheila Sivam 

A ruffled mind makes a restless pillow: relationships between sleep and PTSD
This session will provide a multidisciplinary research perspective on the bi-directional relationship between sleep and PTSD including sleep disruptions as a risk factor for PTSD, mechanisms underlying the relationship between sleep and PTSD, OSA in PTSD and sleep interventions as a means to improve PTSD. Speakers: Ruth Benca, Alexander Wolkow, Maya Schenker, Amy Jordan, Sean Drummond  Chairs: Melinda Jackson, Brad Edwards

Sleepiness, driving and motor vehicle crashes – The road less travelled
The panel will explore the history of sleepiness and driving in the court of law and how landmark cases changed the landscape of how crashes due to driving are viewed today. They will discuss how to best optimize testing and how new advances can be used to foster better driving assessment and standards. After this session, you can take your learnings into a professional setting and make a real impact. Speakers: Matthew Naughton, Mark Howard, Anup Desai   Chairs: Christiaan Yu, Ai-Ming Wong