The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) officially launched AASM SleepTM, a telemedicine platform that the AASM says will dramatically increase patient access to the expertise of board-certified sleep medicine physicians and accredited sleep centers. By eliminating the barriers of regional boundaries and travel times, AASM SleepTM will allow patients have access to high quality sleep health care, regardless of where they live.

Sleep medicine professionals are encouraged to register for one of the upcoming demonstrations to experience an online tour of the platform, which has been enhanced and streamlined since the November release of the beta version. Free demos currently are scheduled for Jan 27 and 29. The AASM also is offering a live, half-day seminar, “Expanding Your Sleep Practice through Telemedicine and Integrated Care,” on Feb 5 and several other dates throughout the spring.

“The official launch of AASM SleepTM represents the dawn of a new era for sleep medicine,” says AASM president Nathaniel Watson, MD, MSc, in a release. “Sleep medicine physicians are going to appreciate the system’s ease of use as well as its sleep-specific customizations, and patients are going to love how AASM SleepTM gives them convenient access to the expertise of sleep specialists.”

AASM SleepTM, formerly Tell A Sleep Doc, was custom-built by the AASM to provide a comprehensive telemedicine solution for the field of sleep medicine. A core component of the system is a secure, web-based video platform that facilitates live, interactive consultations and follow-up visits between patients and sleep medicine providers. AASM SleepTM also features an interactive sleep diary, sleep log and sleep questionnaires, and the system syncs with Fitbit sleep data, giving sleep physicians another view of their patients’ sleep habits.

“Ensuring patient access to quality sleep healthcare requires widespread adoption of telemedicine by sleep medicine practices across the United States,” says Watson. “I encourage all sleep specialists to sign their sleep practice up for AASM SleepTM today. The time for sleep clinicians to embrace telemedicine is now.”

In October 2015 the AASM published a position paper on using telemedicine to diagnose and treat sleep disorders. The paper supports telemedicine as a means of advancing patient health by improving access to the expertise of board-certified sleep medicine physicians.