Meet Our New President, Anita V. Shelgikar, MD, MHPE

The AASM Foundation congratulates Anita V. Shelgikar, MD, MHPE, who was elected by the Board of Directors to the position of President in June 2020. Dr. Shelgikar completed her medical degree at Wayne State University, neurology residency at Emory University and sleep medicine fellowship at the University of Utah. Dr. Shelgikar is an associate professor of neurology at the University of Michigan, where she serves as program director for the ACGME-approved sleep medicine fellowship program. Dr. Shelgikar’s research interests include multidisciplinary care for patients with sleep disorders, innovation in sleep medicine training and competency-based curriculum design and assessment in undergraduate and graduate medical education.

Dr. Shelgikar first joined the AASM Foundation Board of Directors in 2018. She began to take a more active role in the AASM Foundation’s programs by joining the Executive Committee in 2019. Dr. Shelgikar is excited to have the opportunity to work with volunteers and staff to help continue to grow the AASM Foundation’s programs because she says, “Clinical research directly influences how we care for our patients. The information we learn from clinical research allows us to give patients the most updated information about diagnosis and management of sleep-wake disorders, with the goal of maximizing their quality of life.”

One priority over the next year is to engage with health care organizations and foundations like the AASM Foundation. “The field of sleep medicine is ripe with opportunities for collaboration in education, research and patient care,” said Shelgikar. Since sleep medicine falls under many different medical specialties, the AASM Foundation anticipates that partnering with other leading organizations to collaborate and leverage shared resources will make a bigger impact.

When asked about the time commitment required of being a volunteer leader of the AASM Foundation, Shelgikar says, “This gives me the chance to pay it forward, by supporting sleep and circadian researchers to benefit patient care.”