The American Academy of Sleep Medicine regrets to announce the recent death of Carole L. Marcus, MBBCh, FAASM, who was a Fellow member of the AASM and a leader in pediatric sleep medicine.
Dr. Marcus served as director of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Sleep Center and the CHOP Clinical and Translational Research Center/Center for Human Phenomic Science, and she worked closely with colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania as associate director of the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics.
After receiving her M.B.B.Ch. from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, Dr. Marcus completed a residency/chief residency at SUNY Brooklyn and a fellowship in pediatric pulmonology at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. She was a member of the faculty at Johns Hopkins from 1991 to 2003 before accepting positions at CHOP and Penn.
Her research interests were focused on the pathophysiology and management of pediatric obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). She studied the developmental determinants of upper airway collapsibility and the management of childhood OSA through surgery and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy.
Her most recent publications include an examination of the relationship between caregiver self-efficacy and CPAP adherence in children and a financial analysis of an intensive pediatric CPAP program. She also was one of the principal investigators for the Childhood Adenotonsillectomy Trial (CHAT) and was the lead author of the influential paper describing the results of a randomized trial of adenotonsillectomy for childhood sleep apnea, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2013.
Dr. Marcus received the 2015 William C. Dement Academic Achievement Award from the AASM. The award recognizes members of the sleep field who have displayed exceptional initiative and progress in the areas of sleep education and academic research.
In her acceptance remarks, Dr. Marcus wrote, “I am deeply honored to receive this award, which is especially meaningful to me as it bears the name of William Dement. When I was 12, my father finished his neurology fellowship and we took a road trip across the USA. During this long car ride, I read a little blue book of my Dad’s entitled, ‘Some must watch while some must sleep.’ Years later, I had the honor of thanking Dr. Dement for inspiring my interest in sleep medicine.”
Details about funeral arrangements are available online. Contributions in her memory may be made to Doctors without Borders.
