Recognition of Fatigue and Sleep Issues Should get a Major Boost in DOT with New Nomination

President Obama has nominated fatigue expert Dr. Mark Rosekind to be the next administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which has largely ignored the issue of drowsy driving for many years. Rosekind studied under reknown sleep experts Dr. Mary Carskadon and Dr. William Dement and ran the Fatigue program at NASA for many years. Rosekind recently lead a drowsy driving hearing for the National Transportation Safety Board, where he and Acting Chairman Chris Hart have raised awareness of fatigue in transportation incidents and fatalities. Both were long-serving board members of the National Sleep Foundation.

Events like the National Geographic Channel's special on Sleepiness in America, the MyApnea Network being part of PCORnet, and placement of sleep and fatigue experts in government positions such as NHTSA demonstrate that sleep and sleep disorders are finally getting the recognition they deserve as signiticant public health and safety issues.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/20/business/obama-nominates-mark-rosekind-a-fatigue-specialist-to-head-nhtsa.html?_r=2&utm_content=buffer552c5&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_campaign=buffer

You can watch the Senate Commerce Committee nomination hearing of Dr. Rosekind live on Wednesday, December 3 (today) at 12:30 here: http://www.commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Home

But......

We lose Mark's voice on the NTSB. His leadership there has made fatigue and sleep apnea part of regular NTSB accident review processes.

Having presented at the Kentucky State Sleep Society where we both were able to tour sleep medicine professionals through a working CMV able to show them the practical issues of dealing with sleep apnea in a sleeper berth CMV he is a very valuable resource in improving patient outcomes in transportation.

I do wish him well in his new role.