Dr Melissa Jones Previews the SLEEP 2024 Conference

It is important to incorporate further testing of artificial intelligence (AI) models on large, diverse sleep datasets, says Melissa B. Jones, MD, staff neuropsychiatrist, Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center; assistant professor of psychiatry, Baylor College of Medicine.

Jones will be presenting at the SLEEP: American Academy of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research Society (APSS) Annual Meeting this year on a session titled, 'Artificial Intelligence and Big Data in Sleep Medicine.'

Transcript

What topics of discussion are you looking forward to the most at this year’s SLEEP meeting?

I'm biased. I'm, of course, looking forward to hearing my colleagues presentations on artificial intelligence. I'm really lucky to work with such a great team of engineers and clinician scientists who have propelled me into the world of artificial intelligence and big data. Of course, I'm also excited to talk about our findings related to the validation of ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes for the diagnosis of REM [rapid eye movement] sleep behavior disorder.

What do you hope attendees take away from the conference?

I hope that attendees take away our findings related to the validation of ICD-9 and ICD-10 codes for a rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder. We found that over 70% of veterans do not have sleep study confirmation of this disorder, despite having these diagnostic codes in their chart, and 20% did have sleep studies, but the sleep studies were focused on valuations for sleep apnea, and not for REM sleep behavior disorder. So, we really want to encourage sleep labs to incorporate a template that just has a sentence in sleep study reports stating whether or not elevated muscle tone during REM sleep was present or absent, which is the defining feature from sleep behavior disorder. I do think AI-related technologies can help assist with enhancing the diagnosis of REM sleep behavior disorder, but in the meantime, we need to implement a template in sleep study reports.