10,000 – what does that number mean? It is a big number, I am sure you would agree. Many languages have their own word for that number: in English and Greek it is “myriad”; in Hebrew it is “revav”; in Japanese and Korean it is “man”; and in Thai it is “meun” (per Wikipedia!).
There are reportedly 10,000 lakes in Minnesota.
U.S. cities with a population of around 10,000 include Aliquippa, PA; Gulf Shores, AL; Cape Canaveral, FL; and Corning, NY.
Remember the push awhile back – you were to walk 10,000 steps a day – that is about 5 miles!
The AASM now has 10,000 members – one member for every lake in Minnesota or as many people as in the city of Aliquippa. This is an incredible milestone for all of us. I am tnew the first member was recruited in 1974 – and now we have our 10,000th member. The AASM is the largest membership society dedicated to sleep medicine and is still growing! We are all acutely aware of the challenges ahead of us, but with 10,000 members and an influx of newly ABMS-certified sleep specialists, we are poised to continue to move the specialty of sleep medicine ahead. If you haven’t already done so, renew your membership today.
The Board recently had our winter meeting, and many important issues were discussed. As those of you who read my HypnoGram will know, the AASM did submit a Health Care Innovation Challenge proposal to CMS earlier this month. The proposal aims at providing a continuum of care for patients with obstructive sleep apnea from initial visit through diagnosis, treatment initiation and continued management. The certified sleep medicine physician and the sleep center are the anchor points for providing and overseeing care with continued communication with the primary care physician. We plan to begin to solicit letters of interest from physicians and centers who may wish to be involved in this project. More to come on that initiative soon.
In addition, at our meeting we had the opportunity to hear first hand from our committee chairs about the working of their individual committees. We heard from the Education, Academic Affairs, Accreditation, Research and Membership committees. This session offered them and us a chance to exchange plans and ideas for each committee. I would like to personally thank each of them for taking time out of their busy schedules to attend the meeting, and also I would like to thank each committee member for their hard work and assistance in doing the committee work. There is currently a call out for volunteers to be on committees – the “committee on committees” (yes we actually have such a thing) will be meeting in March to discuss each committees mandate and progress in more detail. At that time we will be adding new members to committees as others rotate off. Please throw your hat in the ring if you would like to be more involved. It is a great way to network with others and participate in what the AASM is doing.
Well that’s enough for today – congratulations again to our 10,000th member and to everyone in between from 1 to 10,000. We thank you for joining and look forward to continuing to serve you as the number one resource for sleep education, research and advice on clinical issues and practice.
Nancy Collop, MD
President
