Saudi regulations for the accreditation of sleep medicine physicians and technologists

Abstract

The professional content of sleep medicine has grown significantly over the past few decades, warranting the recognition of sleep medicine as an independent specialty. Because the practice of sleep medicine has expanded in Saudi Arabia over the past few years, a national regulation system to license and ascertain the competence of sleep medicine physicians and technologists has become essential. Recently, the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties formed the National Committee for the Accreditation of Sleep Medicine Practice and developed national accreditation criteria. This paper presents the newly approved Saudi accreditation criteria for sleep medicine physicians and technologists.

Sleep Medicine in Saudi Arabia

“…[26][27][28] To ascertain the quality of medical care provided to patients with sleep disorders, the institution of national regulations and policies is essential to verify the competency of practicing sleep medicine physicians and technologists. The licensing of sleep medicine practitioners and technicians implies that the local health authorities recognize sleep medicine as a distinct medical specialty.…”

“…Therefore, the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties (SCHS) formed the National Committee for the Accreditation of Sleep Medicine Practice, which developed national accreditation criteria for physicians and technologists in 2012. 26 The accreditation guidelines considered the diversity of training programs previously available to current sleep medicine physicians. The guidelines define a sleep medicine physician as a medical doctor (MD) who is trained in the subspecialty of sleep medicine and has competence in the clinical assessment, physiological testing, diagnosis, management, and prevention of sleep and circadian rhythm disorders.…”

“…The guidelines define a sleep medicine physician as a medical doctor (MD) who is trained in the subspecialty of sleep medicine and has competence in the clinical assessment, physiological testing, diagnosis, management, and prevention of sleep and circadian rhythm disorders. 26 The committee developed 2 pathways for accreditation of sleep medicine specialists. The first pathway includes physicians with board certification in sleep medicine from a body accredited by the SCHS, such as the American Board of Health Specialties or an SCHS-accredited local training program.…”

Primary care physicians’ knowledge of sleep medicine and barriers to transfer of patients with sleep disorders

“…Most of those studies were conducted several years ago. For example, an earlier study conducted in Saudi Arabia (1999)6 revealed that only 40% of physicians identified the link between OSA and ischemic heart disease, 43% did not realize that sleep medicine was a distinct specialty and 85% had never attended a lecture on sleep medicine.Since then, the awareness of sleep medicine and sleep disorders has increased, the service has expanded, new sleep disorder centers have been opened, many specialists have joined the field, the Saudi Commission for Health Specialties has recognized sleep medicine as an independent specialty and subspecialty training programs have been established in the country 1,2. Therefore, we designed this study to assess PCPs’ attitudes and knowledge toward sleep and sleep disorders in Saudi Arabia using standardized validated questionnaires and to compare the new findings with the 1999 survey 6…”

Sleep medicine certification for physicians in Spain

“…To date, several procedures have been developed to perform the certification process. In some countries, for instance, the USA [1][2][3], sleep medicine is considered an independent medical subspecialty, and in Germany [4,5] and Saudi Arabia [6], its status as a subspecialty has been officially acknowledged. In other countries, expertise is certified by scientific societies or academic institutions.…”