We are now accepting letters of intent for the 2024 Strategic Research Grant: AASM Strategic Plan Goals. This focused funding opportunity is for topic areas related to the following American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) Strategic Plan Goals: Advocacy to Improve Patient Care, Public Awareness, Technology Innovation, and Workforce Development. Only letters of intent that fit into one of these research domains will be considered.
- Advocacy to Improve Patient Care – Positively influence clinical practice for providers and their patients. Topics that fall under the strategic goal of improving patient care include, but are not limited to:
- Research for understanding:
- The impact of drug use (e.g., cannabis, opioids) on sleep health and sleep disorders.
- Predictors of treatment adherence.
- Comparative effectiveness research, especially in special populations (e.g., pediatrics, women, older adults, people with comorbidities), of:
- Diagnosis of sleep disorders (e.g., new diagnostic devices, delivery methods, alternate metrics for diagnosis or characterization of disease severity, endotyping)
- Interventions and delivery methods to treat sleep disorders.
- Interventions (e.g., technology, behavioral, psychological, pharmacologic) to improve sleep disorder treatment adherence.
- Health services research for:
- Understanding the impact of screening for sleep disorders by non-sleep clinicians.
- Understanding patient preferences and satisfaction with different treatment options for sleep disorders.
- Evaluating the economic impact of treating sleep disorders on long-term healthcare utilization.
- Public Awareness– Promote greater public recognition that sleep is essential to health. Topics that fall under the strategic goal of increasing public awareness include, but are not limited to, projects that:
- Develop or implement strategies that address the importance of sleep in the pediatric population (infancy through adolescence) and/or the impact of sleep deprivation and sleep disturbances in development, mental health, cognition, mood, school performance, etc.
- Implement strategies to increase clinician awareness of the importance of healthy sleep and appropriately diagnosing and treating sleep disorders with models for follow-up with sleep medicine care with a board-certified sleep provider.
- Develop awareness strategies that address sleep disturbances and sleep disorders and their connection to various other health conditions.
Note: Projects that use or expand AASM sleep education resources, AASM Sleep is Good Medicine campaign, or results from AASM Foundation-funded projects to promote healthy sleep and highlight sleep as a pillar of health will be given priority.
- Technology Innovation– Positively influence the impact of technology, and artificial intelligence on patients and the sleep team. Topics that fall under the strategic goal of technology innovation include, but are not limited to, research that:
- Evaluates current and new technology for expanding delivery of sleep care to improve patient outcomes, quality of care, and cost-effectiveness.
- Leverages consumer wearables for promoting and improving sleep in patients, increasing engagement with the sleep team, monitoring and improving patient care and treatment adherence.
- Harnesses large datasets and computing power to yield greater clinical sleep insights, augment clinical expert opinion of sleep data, enhance diagnostic abilities, patient care, and treatment.
- Workforce Development– Expand the sleep team workforce of the future to improve access to high-quality sleep care. Topics that fall under the strategic goal of workforce development include, but are not limited to, research that:
- Develops and tests comprehensive and innovative models of care that use a team-based approach for long-term care and management of people with sleep disorders.
- Evaluates the value of services provided by sleep physicians and the sleep team or assesses how their roles in patient care may evolve in the future.
Note: Projects focused on central disorders of hypersomnolence, REM sleep behavior disorder, dissemination and implementation research, or sleep health disparities will not be considered under this RFA and should be submitted to the 2024 Strategic Research Grant: Central Disorders of Hypersomnolence Research RFA, 2024 Strategic Research Grant: REM Sleep Behavior Disorder Research RFA, or 2024 Strategic Research Grant: Dissemination and Implementation Research.
Letters of intent are due October 23, 2023. For full information on eligibility and this funding opportunity, visit: https://foundation.aasm.org/strategic-research-award/
