Primary Care Physician's Portal

Approximately one third of the population suffer from some type of sleep problem. These problems range from difficulty falling asleep, known as insomnia, to excessive daytime sleepiness. The indirect cost of sleep disorders is estimated at 41 billion dollars per year from lost productivity, 17 to 27 billion dollars per year from motor vehicle accidents, 7 billion dollars per year in work-related accidents and 2 to 4 billion dollars per year in home and public accidents (Stoller MK Clin Ther 1994:16 873-897). These figures do not even take into account the added morbidity caused by the physiologic impact from sleep disorders. Unfortunately, Sleep, a process which consumes about one third of our life and which has a spectrum of abnormalities which can hinder our daily living, has received so little attention in our medical education system. Unfortunately, most physicians have not been trained to deal with these common problems. A study done in 1990 demonstrated that an average of only two hours are spent during the four years of medical school teaching medical students anything about sleep. This has created a significant deficit in our current medical system.
The role of the Primary Care Physician: Most people have a physician who they can refer to as their primary care physician. Particularly with current health care plans, patients must identify a physician who takes a leading role in directing the overall health management for a patient. Unfortunately, most of these physicians have not received any training on identifying or treating sleep problems. If the physician were to add just a few screening questions related to sleep to their routine screening assessment, millions of Americans would be guided into a systematic pathway which could improve their sleep ills.This portal is intended to provide the primary care physician with practical information that can be easily implemented to screen patients for common sleep disturbances.