The 11th Annual FOCUS Conference, held March 24-26, 2011, in San Diego, brought

The Sleep Educator Mini Conference at Focus drew significant interest among professionals from a variety of health care specialties. Would you be interested in obtaining certification as a sleep educator? Vote here. 

together respiratory and sleep professionals for 3 days of lectures and an opportunity to visit with over 100 exhibitors and recruiters. The event featured opportunities for attendees to receive 29.5 AARC-approved CEUs, and up to 29.5 AAST-approved CEUs.

Along with lectures on adult and pediatric/neonatal respiratory issues, this year’s conference featured lectures on clinical sleep medicine and the business of sleep, including such topics as clinical pediatric sleep medicine, preoperative screening for sleep apnea, the daily management of sleep lab operations, and legal updates on third-party contracting and DME for sleep labs.

Attendees appreciated the crossover between the two fields.

“It’s kind of nice to see the two combined just because there is so much crossover in the field,” said Julie DeWitte, RRT-RPSGT, clinical director at Serenity Sleep and Neurodiagnostics, Mission Viejo, Calif. “You’ll find a lot of respiratory therapists who have gone into sleep and a lot of sleep [professionals] who are then crossing over into respiratory therapy, so [the conference] offers a nice combination.”

A preconference Sleep Educator workshop was well received and well attended. The new 7-hour course provided a comprehensive overview of managing patients with sleep disorders.

In addition, the event featured over 100 exhibitors and recruiters during the 3-day event.

“Our company provides review seminars to get people ready to take board exams and one of the new areas we’re expanding into is sleep medicine. We’re currently developing materials to help people pass the sleep credential exams. So this was a good opportunity for us to have contact with people who are involved in the sleep area of health care,” said Thomas V. Hill, PhD, RRT-NPS, RPFT, AE-C, FAARC, executive director of Kettering National Seminars, Dayton, Ohio.

The next FOCUS conference will be held in Nashville, Tenn, May 10-12, 2012.