Washington State Sleep Society: 2015

Washington State Sleep Society encourages all state sleep health professionals to take advantage of this great opportunity to learn and network with your sleep contemporaries at the annual SLEEP Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies being held right here in Washington State this year, in Seattle, starting June 6 and ending June 10.

Many members have asked if we will be managing a booth at the event. WSSS will not be represented in the vendor hall, but many of our members and board will be in attendance at this largest of sleep health professional gatherings, which includes presentations and programming for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), the American Association of Sleep Technologists (AAST) and the Sleep Research Society (SRS).

Please note: Because SLEEP 2015 takes place in Seattle this year, and because the Pacific Northwest Sleep Society conference (aka Skamania) already took place earlier this year, the WSSS will delay its next conference until 2016 as these two major sleep technology education conferences provide ample opportunity for sleep techs to get their annual CECs for 2015.

Registration: If you have not registered yet, click here. Registration covers the SLEEP 2015 Plenary Session; the General Sessions (invited lecturers, clinical workshops, discussion groups, rapid-fire symposia, bench-to-bedside sessions and oral presentations over three-and-a-half days); SLEEP 2015 Exhibit & Poster Halls (including Industry Supported Events and Industry Product Theaters); Late-breaking Abstracts and Brown Bag Case Reports; and Membership Meetings for all three organizations. Some events have additional costs or fees; please see the main SLEEP 2015 program here for details.

Fees: On-site registration fees for technologists vary according to membership status:

AAST Member: $310
Technologist (AAST Nonmember): $425

CECs: The AAST Annual Meeting includes credit opportunities for registered AAST members. Attendees can earn up to 19.75 Continuing Education Credits (CECs). The breakdown of CECs by day:

Sunday, June 7, 2015 7.75 CECs
Monday, June 8, 2015 6.00 CECs
Tuesday, June 9, 2015 6.00 CECs

Attendees can also earn up to 19.75 American Association for Respiratory Care (AARC) CRCE contact hours for respiratory therapists.

Nonmembers interested in receiving CECs must register and pay the $20.00 fee. CECs are offered for AAST 37th Annual Meeting sessions only (not for AASM or SRS sessions, though attendance of these may also be quite valuable to you from an education standpoint). Technologists can also register for a letter of attendance for the SLEEP 2015 sessions. There is a registration fee for the letter of attendance.

Topics of Interest: Of special interest to polysomnographic technologists are the lineups offered by the AAST; check out their final program and get directions, lodging options and other conference information here. Topics run the gamut, from patient assessment methods to telemedicine, PTSD to seizures in sleep, scoring to coding guideline reviews.

This year's AAST keynote speaker is Nathaniel Watson, MD, MS, address "Trends in Sleep Medicine" (June 8, 3:45pm - 4:45pm). Immediately following the keynote, the AAST hosts its annual award ceremony and general membership meeting, which is open to all AAST Members. The meeting provides an overview of AAST activities over the last year, recognizes some of the nation's top sleep techs and allows members a rare opportunity to network face to face.