Sleep Disorders Fellowship Program

The University of Florida Sleep Disorders Fellowship is sponsored by the Department of Medicine and is a cooperative effort among the Departments of Medicine, Pediatrics, Neurology, Otolaryngology (including hypoglossal nerve stimulation), Psychiatry, and Clinical/Health Psychology.   The program includes 3 geographic centers; UF Health Shands Hospital and Clinics, the Malcolm Randall VAMC, and the UF Health Sleep Disorders Center at Magnolia Parke.

Mission Statement

Through commitment to education, scholarship, diversity and inclusion; and safe, high quality patient care, we will improve the health and well being of patients by training physicians for the independent practice of high quality sleep medicine including treatment of the full range of sleep disorders in adults and children. 

Aims/Goals

1. Graduate Sleep Medicine physicians who practice independently.
2. Greater than 90% of graduates will be certified in sleep medicine within four years (exam given every other year).
3. All fellows will demonstrate ACGME defined scholarly activity during the fellowship. Examples included case conference presentation, didactic lectures, journal club presentations, development of case reports for submission to peer reviewed journals.
4. 25% of graduates will either demonstrate scholarly activity, academic careers and/or leadership roles. 

Faculty

Dr. Richard B. Berry, a pulmonologist and the sleep center medical director is a Diplomate of the American Board of Sleep Medicine and Diplomate of Sleep Medicine by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Dr. Berry is also co-director of the sleep fellowship. The program is co-directed by associate medical director of the UF Health Sleep Disorders Center, Dr. Mary Wagner, a pediatric pulmonologist , also a Diplomate in Sleep Disorders of the ABSM and the American Board of Pediatrics. 

Other faculty include Dr. Susheela Hadigal, Dr. Semiramis Carbajal Mamani, Dr. Megan Lowery, Dr. Sreekala Prabhakaran, and Dr. Emily Beck.  All faculty are Board Certified in Sleep Medicine by their respective boards.  

Fellowship faculty includes members of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine in the Department of Medicine/VA Hospital, Division of Pediatric Pulmonary medicine in the Department of Pediatrics, Department of Neurology, Department of Otolaryngology, Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Department of Psychiatry, the Department of Clinical and Health Psychology, and the Dental School including faculty from the Divisions of Dentistry and Orthodontics.  

All faculty read sleep studies with the fellows and supervise them in sleep clinics. The sleep fellow will rotate through a number of specialty clinics under the direction of core and non-core faculty. These include Neurology clinic, ENT clinic, Cardiology Clinic, Pulmonary Clinic and Craniofacial Clinic.  Instruction by specialists in the College of Dentistry will familiarize the fellow with all aspects of oral appliance treatment of sleep apnea. The Department of Clinical and Health Psychology provides faculty with major interests in insomnia and CBT-I.

Facilities

The UF Health Sleep Disorders Center is a twelve-bed facility accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.  The facility has four beds dedicated for monitoring pediatric patients.

UF Health Shands Hospital is the major tertiary referral center for north Florida with teaching hospitals including three towers in close proximity. The weekly Sleep Clinics (adult and pediatric) are located in the clinic facility, which is an integral part of the UF Health Sleep Center at Magnolia Parke.  Didactic lectures, clinical case conferences, and journal club/research conferences occur at the UF Health Sleep Center or at the Malcom Randall VAMC. The Malcom Randall VAMC is a 272-bed full service VA hospital and is a major teaching affiliate. The Va includes a four-bed sleep laboratory with state of the art equipment and a busy VA sleep clinic are located in this hospital.

Durable medical equipment for treatment of sleep disorders (CPAP, Bi-level PAP) is provided by the Prosthetics Service and dispensing of the equipment, patient education, and changes in prescription pressure are performed by Respiratory Therapists in the VA Pulmonary, Respiratory, Sleep Section.

The UF Health Sleep Disorders Center is a full service sleep lab with clinic facilities.  The center is located in the beautiful Magnolia Parke in Northwest Gainesville approximately 5 miles from the UF Health Shands and VA Hospitals.  The sleep center consists of 12 sleep rooms with hotel décor and state of the art monitoring equipment.  Sleep studies are read at the center, physician offices, or remotely. Facilities to read sleep studies are available at all sites.

Outstanding Features

This program has a number of outstanding features including a large and diverse multidisciplinary faculty, a large volume of clinical material, and ongoing funded research offering opportunities for fellow participation. The core faculty includes six board certified sleep physicians , and Jaffee). Dr. Berry, an experienced educator, spends 75% of his time devoted to clinical sleep medicine or research, and has published several textbooks on Sleep Medicine. He frequently provides talks at National Meetings and Sleep Courses. He was awarded the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Excellent in Education award in 2010.  Dr. Wagner is an experienced pediatric pulmonologist who devotes 75% of her time to sleep medicine. She is an expert on ventilatory support of chronic respiratory disorders. Dr. Eisenschenk is a neurologist devoting 40% of this time to sleep medicine and 60% to patients with Epilepsy. He provides valuable expertise in video PSG with extended EEG. He is director of the Epilepsy Program at the Malcom Randall VA Hospital.

Our program offers a large volume and diversity of clinical material including over 3,000 sleep studies performed yearly at the associated sleep centers including 1000 pediatric sleep studies. Fellows become involved in either basic or clinical research involving sleep disorders. Fellows also participate in the long- term follow-up of patients being treated for hypoglossal nerve stimulation. Dr. Berry has ongoing research in portable monitoring and use of auto-titrating positive airway pressure devices.  He was a principal investigator in a variety of nationwide trials related to the evaluation and treatment of OSA.

Publications

• Berry RB, Ryals S, Dibra M, Wagner MH. Use of a Transformed ECG Signal to Detect Respiratory Effort During Apnea. J Clin Sleep Med. 2019 Jul 15;15(7):991-998. PMID: 31383237 
• Berry RB, Uhles ML, Abaluck BK, Winslow DH, et al. NightBalance Sleep Position Treatment Device versus Auto-adjusting Positive Airway Pressure for Treatment of Positional Obstructive Sleep Apnea. J Clin Sleep Med. In press 
• Budhiraja R, Javaheri S, Parthasarathy S, Berry RB, Quan SF. Incidence of hypertension in obstructive sleep apnea using hypopneas defined by 3 percent oxygen desaturation or arousal but not by only 4 percent oxygen desaturation. J Clin Sleep Med. 2020 Oct 15;16(10):1753-1760. PMID: 32643602. 
• Berry RB, Beck E, Jasko JG. Effect of cloud-based sleep coaches on positive airway pressure adherence. J Clin Sleep Med. 2020 Apr 15;16(4):553-562. PMID: 32022679 
• Hadigal S, Sharma S, Wagner MH, Ryals S, Berry RB. Sudden Improvement in PAP Download Indices Without Treatment Change. J Clin Sleep Med. 2019 May 15;15(5):791-793. doi: 10.5664/jcsm.7780. PMID: 31053218 
• McCrae CS, Williams J, Roditi D, Anderson R, Mundt JM, Miller MB, Curtis AF, Waxenberg LB, Staud R, Berry RB, Robinson ME. Cognitive behavioral treatments for insomnia and pain in adults with comorbid chronic insomnia and fibromyalgia: clinical outcomes from the SPIN randomized controlled trial. Sleep. 2019 Mar 1;42(3):zsy234.  PMID: 30496533.

For More Information Contact

Anna Pryyma – Fellowship Program Coordinator
Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine
1600 SW Archer Road, Room M452
Gainesville, FL 32610-0225
Phone: 352-273-9515
Fax: 352-273-9154