August 3rd, 2013 Dr. Richard Klein of Michigan Head & Neck Institute, With Three Other Experts, Met With Members of the Dept. of Transportation in Washington, DC About Safety in Trucking
Dr. Richard Klein of Michigan Head & Neck Institute, With Three Other Experts, Met With Members of the Dept. of Transportation in Washington, DC About Safety in Trucking
Washington, DC (PRWEB) July 18, 2013
On Thursday, July 11th, a two hour briefing and Q & A session took place between members of the Department of Transportation and four professionals who strive to make a difference in keeping drivers safe. In attendance in the office of Anthony Foxx (United States Secretary of Transportation), was Larry Minor (Associate Administrator for Policy), Marty Russo (lobbyist and former congressman of Illinois), Shannon Watson (Senior Policy Advisor, Office of Policy), Elaine Papp (Chief, Medical Programs Division), Angela Ward (Occupational Health Nurse, Medical Programs Division) and Lucas Robinson (Intern, Office of Policy).
That team met with four experts including Dr. Elliott Alpher and Dr. Richard Klein who are co-chair of the Sleep Committee of the American Academy of Craniofacial Pain (AACP). Dr. Elliott Alpher teaches at George Washington and Georgetown Universities, and has lead the effort to inform government officials with facts regarding OSA and the relation to the transportation industry. Dr. Klein teaches at Michigan State Osteopathic Medical School, lectures at numerous educational seminars, and is one of the few dentists that exclusively treats TMJ problems and obstructive sleep apnea within Michigan and the tri-state area. Inventor Dr. Rick Bonnato (President of Braebon Corporation), Mr. Mitch Livingston (Vice President of Braebon Corporaton), and Mr. David Gergen (President of Gergen Orthodontic Laboratories) were the other experts present.
The main topic of discussion involved the various causes and treatments for truck drivers and other people who have transportation occupations that suffer from obstructive sleep apnea. A barrier to encouraging oral appliances for those drivers who would not wear a CPAP machine when sleeping, was the fact that compliance and usage is measurable with a CPAP machine and not measurable with an oral appliance until now.
Dr. Rick Bonnato invented a sensor which is able to be implanted into the oral appliance. Mr. David Gergen concurred that various oral appliances would be able to be manufactured with such sensors inside. Oral appliance usage and success, as well as the need to rule out TMJ dysfunction before prescribing an oral appliance, were both sciences understood by the medical and non-medical members of the DOT that were present.
Also discussed was the topic of a new ability to collect important information through sleep testing that can now be done right from an off-site location such as the cab of a trucker’s tractor or even a hotel room. That technology would allow monitoring of each driver’s progress and ensure their treatment’s settings are relevant.
Now, it is possible to monitor treatment compliance and progression from virtually anywhere.
Ensuring sleep apnea is being treated properly and effectively with those truck drivers and other professional drivers across the United States, as they drive all over this nation’s roadways, is definitely a priority of the DOT and is precisely why this meeting took place. Now the issue of compliance with an oral appliance is no longer an unsolved issue. “Last year over 200,000 people on the roadways in this nation lost their lives due to sleepy drivers and now American roads will be safer and drivers can feel more confident in their safety,” says Dr. Richard Klein.
For more information about Dr. Elliott Alpher, please visit http://www.thealphercenter.com.
For more information about Dr. Richard Klein, please visit http://www.sleepapneamichigan.com.
For more information about Dr. Rick Bonnato , Mitch Livingston, and Braebon Corporation, please visit http://www.braebon.com.
For more information about David Gergen, and Gergen’s Orthodontic Lab, please visit http://www.gergensortho.com.
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