Members are invited to take part in the BTS Guidelines Survey.

For nominations to Executive Committee Election, visit the members section.

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With the grand relaunch of the scientific meeting, our commitment is to provide an outstanding programme showcasing the best of British sleep research. We have secured keynote lectures by some of the top names in international sleep, making our meeting the place to be for a comprehensive update on the hot topics in sleep medicine both at home and worldwide.

The meeting is packed with outstanding speakers, symposia, year-end review, pro/con and free communications – there is something for everyone, from those at an early-stage in their sleep career to experienced professionals.

Keynote speakers confirmed include:

• Prof Colin Sullivan, Sydney
• Dr Naresh Punjabi, Baltimore
• Prof Allan Pack, Philadelphia
• Prof Russell Foster, Oxford
• Prof John Stradling, Oxford
• Prof Sir Neil Douglas, Edinburgh
• Prof Colin Espie, Glasgow

And if you’d like to see your name alongside such luminaries on the 25th anniversary programme, then why not submit an abstract? This is a great opportunity to present your work at a national conference to a multidisciplinary sleep audience, and let everyone know about the part you’re playing in UK sleep. The abstract submission deadline is 1 May 2013, and successful applicants will be notified on or before 20 May 2013.

The full conference package includes registration fees, attendance to all scientific sessions, conference programme, morning, lunchtime and afternoon refreshments and on-site three-star accommodation, as well as evening entertainment including a gala conference dinner and Scottish cheese and whisky tasting.

For more details and visit the BSS 25th Anniversary Meeting website at www.edinburghsleep2013.co.uk

Please come and encourage all your team to attend – support UK sleep! We look forward to welcoming you to Edinburgh.

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The new rigorous British Sleep Society accreditation process included a site visit by a nationally appointed team of sleep experts. They inspected the services and facilities available to patients, to ensure the RSSC met international quality standards for the investigation and treatment of the full range of sleep disorders.

Dr Paul Reading, President of the British Sleep Society with Dr Tim Quinnell, Consultant Physician and Clinical Lead for the Sleep Laboratory at Papworth Hospital. Standing behind them are Dr John Shneerson and Dr Ian Smith, Consultant Physicians in the RSSC at Papworth Hospital.

Dr Paul Reading, President of the British Sleep Society, said: “Our accreditation team were very impressed by the standard of the services provided by the Papworth Hospital Respiratory Support and Sleep Centre and are delighted that Papworth Hospital is the first centre to receive accreditation.”

Dr Tim Quinnell, Consultant Physician and Clinical Lead for the Sleep Laboratory, said: “We are delighted with this result. The fact that the RSSC is the first British sleep centre to achieve European accreditation is testament to the sustained efforts of a dedicated team of people over several years, taking us from service inception to what has become a first class sleep medicine service.

We hope that our success will serve as a catalyst to help move British sleep medicine closer to where it should be, by encouraging aspiring sleep services around the country to work toward this international benchmark.”

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Medikidz is an initiative in children’s health education founded by a medical journalist in New Zealand. The organisation aims to provide accessible medical information to young patients.

This multi-media enterprise comprises topic specific information booklets as well as a website – www.medikidz.com which offers a medical encyclopedia for children, a virtual human body and a social network site. Information is conveyed by superhero cartoon characters who live in Mediland, a planet shaped like the human body including ‘..a bum that poops… and it’s a big place so it’s quite a poop’. Each character represents an organ system for example ‘Pump – the guy you come to for the lowdown on your heart and blood vessels’.

The OSA booklet is a brilliant synthesis of a pacy storyline and excellent cartoon graphics which cover key educational messages in a fun but informative way. Would that medical education was always this much fun! Jen the main character is suitably chubby and falls asleep in class, she also falls asleep into her birthday cake (perhaps she has narcolepsy too!). She is whisked away in a spacecraft by the superheroes to visit Mediland where she tours the upper and lower respiratory tract and learns about the effects of OSA on sleep quality and oxygenation as well as associated symptoms like bed wetting. Investigation and treatment options are discussed and well illustrated and the authors don’t overlook the health promotion messages.

At the end Jen is a fully signed up and compliant patient: ‘I’m going to wear my mask every night and get on top of my OSA thing-prontissimo… either way I’m going to get out, exercise and eat properly to lose a few pounds’. I can see how this would be a really useful tool in paediatric sleep medicine to demystify OSA for children (and their parents) and possibly even improve compliance.

Zoe and Isobel Holley (7 & 10 years) kindly agreed to review the booklet for me. They were both able to read it independently and found it sufficiently engaging to read through to the end. They particularly liked the ‘toilet humour element added by the ‘Gastro’ superhero who ‘farts’. Many of the target audience for OSA would be too young to read this independently but I would imagine it would be accessible to younger children when read by a parent.

I would highly recommend this to paediatric clinics. At £6.99 it may be a little expensive to hand out to all NHS patients but nonetheless is a very helpful resource.

The views expressed by reviewers are theirs alone. The BSS Executive attempts to filter content deemed as commercially conflicted, inaccurate, or misleading.

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For more details contact us at the BSS office.

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