Dear AASM members,

As 2017 comes to a close, I’m impressed by the AASM’s accomplishments this year. My term as AASM president began with the highly successful SLEEP meeting in Boston this past June. Since then, we have welcomed a new Executive Director, and in September, the AASM unveiled a new logo and a totally revamped website to improve and enhance members’ engagement with the AASM.

The field of sleep medicine saw major growth, as evidenced by a record number of 150 fellows who were matched to sleep medicine fellowship training programs for “Match Day” on November 1. The AASM also maintained our commitment to the American Sleep Medicine Foundation and sleep research by giving another 2 million dollars to support the ASMF’s award programs in 2017.

Looking back on this year I am so grateful for the support of our membership. As an organization, the AASM would not be successful without the hard work and dedication of our members. Our committees and task forces continue to advance the strategic initiatives of the organization as evidenced by the new guidelines and position statements that were published in the last year.

Additional accomplishments include the development of a new quality measures webinar series along with other educational products and courses, the resources being developed to address reimbursement issues, the prioritization of a health policy agenda, the ideas being generated for engaging both new and existing members and so much more.

We also worked to establish the American Alliance for Healthy Sleep, a new patient advocacy group that will unite and represent all patients who have a sleep disorder, which will launch in January 2018.

As we look forward to 2018, I am sure we will achieve great things together.

Wishing you and your loved ones a Happy New Year full of excitement and new memories.

Sincerely,
Ilene M. Rosen, MD, MS
President