American Sleep Medicine Foundation (ASMF)

Strategic Research Award

The American Sleep Medicine Foundation (ASMF) is pleased to announce the 2013 Strategic Research Award.  This request for proposals (RFP) is aimed at soliciting high quality grant proposals that would propose research aimed at improving quality of health care delivery in the field of sleep medicine.
Up to three grants will be funded up to $100,000 each for a period of one year.

• Download the Strategic Research Award Application

Overview

The ASMF is interested in measuring value in sleep medicine. Value is a ratio of measures of quality, service, safety, and outcomes in the numerator divided by costs over time in the denominator. The following are areas that were identified as sleep research needs:

1. Care under a board certified sleep medicine specialist:
   The responsive proposal should describe research that studies a) the value of the board certified sleep medicine specialist in diagnosing and managing sleep diseases, as compared with strategies that do not include sleep specialists, b) the comparative effectiveness of collaborative chronic care models for sleep disease across primary, specialty, or collaborative health care settings with particular emphasis on the role of the sleep medicine specialist in differing care models, or c) comparative economic evaluations (such as cost analysis, cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, or cost-utility analyses) between care of sleep disease supervised by sleep medicine specialists vs. primary care physicians.
   
2. Telemedicine:
   The responsive proposal should describe research that evaluates effectiveness of telemedicine, in part or in whole, as a means to manage sleep diseases. Special attention should be given to measures of cost analysis, cost-benefit analysis, cost-effectiveness analysis, or cost-utility analyses and of clinically relevant outcome measures.
   
3. Actigraphy:
   The responsive proposal should describe research developing an understanding of the diagnostic or therapeutic value of actigraphy as it relates to the practice of sleep medicine. Potential questions to address might include a) work clarifying the relative and unique contributions of actigraphy compared with polysomnography, sleep logs, or other standard diagnostic tests in the diagnosis of sleep diseases and measurement of treatment effects, or measurement of treatment adherence, or b) work clarifying the use of actigraphy in patients with hypersomnia, especially as an adjunct to the Multiple Sleep Latency Test or other objective tests used in establishing sleepiness. The successful proposal should generate information that allows one to compare the value of actigraphy with other methods of establishing or monitoring sleep disease diagnoses and therapy.

Research in the strategic areas listed above, or combination thereof, is urgent considering the fast-changing field of sleep medicine and the need to reduce costs and yet improve the value of healthcare. Considering the importance of the topic and the limited funds available, applications that propose work that will aid development of subsequent competitive proposals for larger grants to other award giving agencies (i.e., collection of pilot data, initiating appropriate collaborations and planning for a future grant submission to for example, NIH, AHRQ or PCORI) will be considered highly responsive. Such planning proposals would need to include an appropriate timeline for submission of subsequent applications to other grant giving agencies.
This RFP falls under the broad category of Health Services Research and would require a competitive application to have significant input from health services researchers and/or biostatisticians in the conception and design of the proposal. Applicants are strongly encouraged to secure collaboration from researchers with prior experience in health care implementation science.

Eligibility

Members of the AASM in good standing are eligible to apply.

Application Deadline

Candidates must complete the application process before August 15, 2013. 

For questions about the Strategic Research Award or other ASMF inquiries, please contact Laura Bentley, ASMF Coordinator at 630-737-9700 or lbentley@aasmnet.org