Dr Robert Iannone on Sleep Health Educational Content Initiative

In collaboration with the American Heart Association, Jazz Pharmaceuticals will provide a wide variety of sleep health educational content, including scientific research, reading materials for both patients and practitioners, and podcasts from experts in the field speaking to the importance of sleep on cardiovascular health, said Robert Iannone, MD, MSCE, executive vice president of research and development for Jazz Pharmaceuticals.

Transcript

AJMC®: Hello, I’m Matthew Gavidia. Today on the MJH Life Sciences’ Medical World News, The American Journal of Managed Care® is pleased to welcome Robert Iannone, executive vice president of research and development at Jazz Pharmaceuticals.

Great to have you on, Robert, can you just introduce yourself and tell us a little bit more about your work?

Iannone: Hi, my name is Rob Iannone. I’m a pediatric oncologist by training, and I’ve been in drug development now for over 15 years, came to Jazz a year and a half ago, and I’m really excited to be here, to be part of the research and development that’s ongoing at Jazz.

AJMC®: Recently, Jazz Pharmaceuticals announced a new sleep health collaboration with the American Heart Association. Can you speak on the details of this partnership?

Iannone: Yeah, thank you. So, Jazz is truly excited to be working with the American Heart Association on their sleep health educational content initiative. The focus of this initiative is really on, I would say, broadly for patients who are struggling with sleep, but also inclusive of people who have sleep disorders.

The support that we’ll be providing will allow for a microsite within the website that will focus on sleep educational content, and this will include a variety of things, such as scientific research, reading materials that can be available to patients and practitioners, as well as podcasts from experts in the field speaking to the importance of sleep on cardiovascular health.

AJMC®: Research has shown that sleep disorders or disrupted sleep is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular and cardiometabolic diseases, such as obesity and diabetes. Can you first explain why a collaboration of this type was warranted, and how it can address issues of healthy sleep and sleep disorders among these at-risk populations?

Dr Iannone: Well, Matt, you may be surprised to hear that about a third of all Americans don’t get the recommended 7 hours of sleep a night. And we know that this could have negative health consequences, in particular on cardiovascular health.

When you then think about patients who have a sleep disorder, who have significantly disrupted sleep, like narcolepsy or idiopathic hypersomnia, there’s a known association with negative cardiovascular outcomes, including serious problems such as coronary artery disease, stroke, obesity, diabetes, and other complications of those. And it’s because of that, that Jazz is really excited about this collaboration with the American Heart Association.

We continue to be committed to research in this area, providing good medical therapies for patients with sleep disorders, such as narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia, but also to provide patients with everything they need to lead a healthy life, which includes educational materials and educational outreach that the American Heart Association will be supporting.