Project Summary
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common chronic medical condition associated with a number of co-morbidities that include cardiovascular, endocrine, and mental health conditions. From the patient perspective, our current healthcare system treats OSA as an acute condition—and not from the chronic illness care model—and is based on research that does not include an understanding of the benefits and harms from the patient perspective. The goal of this pre-engagement/community project is to help us build capacity and engage patients (and their families), clinicians, researchers, and other important stakeholders about developing and prioritizing comparative effectiveness research (CER) questions of keen interest to our community. While we are aware of individual researchers who are interested in this area, this project would allow us to form a partnership with a defined purpose. Main project activities will include (1) identification of potential partners, (2) invitation to an informational meeting about the project, (3) final selection of partners, (4) a series of webinars/conference calls, and (5) one in-person meeting. The overarching goal of the project will be to form a partnership to create and prioritize CER questions with the expressed goal of taking the next step of working together on a CER grant proposal. The American Sleep Apnea Association, the lead on this application, has experience working with the advocacy groups of other co-morbid medical conditions as well as with a number of clinicians and researchers who appreciate the patient perspective.