Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences is a multispecialty tertiary care hospital which also undertakes graduate and postgraduate medical training. It is the only medical college and the only hospital of its kind on the East Coast Road from Chennai leading in to Pondicherry.
The sleep lab in Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences was conceptualized in early 2011. Initially it was a collaborative project involving the Departments of Physiology, Pharmacology, Pulmonary Medicine and Neurology. The final design of the lab, the finer details of its functioning, procurement of equipment and training of personnel was ultimately envisaged and brought to fruition by Dr. Tripat Deep Singh, then a teaching faculty of the Department of Physiology in this institution. The lab was inaugurated on 29th April, 2011 and was made fully functional on the 1st of October, the same year.
Since its inception, the lab has undertaken 115 sleep studies, dealing mostly with sleep apnea patients, almost all of whom are referred by the Department of Pulmonary Medicine, with the exception of a few from the departments of Medicine, ENT and Nephrology.
A few diagnostic studies for REM Behavioral Disorders (one of which turned out to be a case of myoclonic seizures) and one Multiple Sleep Latency Test for narcolepsy have also been undertaken, with patients being referred by the Departments of Neurology and Psychiatry.
Research is also on the lab’s agenda, with postgraduate trainees getting involved with the process. Since this is the only sleep lab in the region which handles patients, the nearest alternative being in Chennai, about 150 km away, a number of extra-institutional references are also received on a regular basis.
At present the lab functions under the aegis of the Physiology department. It is a single bedded arrangement running an Alice 5 machine. The lab conducts Level 1 sleep studies, attended by a technician, a technologist trained in neurosciences and EEG interpretation and one or two teaching faculty from the Physiology Department, along with on call doctors from the referring departments. All three faculty members from the department, who are available to attend to sleep studies, have attended the National Sleep Medicine Course and the Sleep Technician’s Workshop at NIMHANS, Bengaluru in December 2012. The tests offered are diagnostic studies, CPAP or BiPAP titration studies, split night studies, MSLTs and MWTs. The reporting of the studies is done manually.
The sleep lab team of the Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, under the guidance of Dr. Tripat Deep Singh, has conducted two workshops on Polysomnography in 2011 and 2012 in this institution. These workshops were open to participants from all around the region. The team has also conducted two CME programs for the medical fraternity. In collaboration with the Department of Pulmonary Medicine, the team is in the process of conducting awareness programs for the local General Practitioners as well as the general public, by means of seminars, radio talks and television advertisements.
This sleep lab team hopes to further the cause of sleep medicine with more of such awareness programs. The lab and its team are currently geared for undertaking 1-month and 3-months structured training programs for sleep lab technicians.
Training opportunities at Sleep Lab Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Pondicherry
The lab and its team are currently geared for undertaking 1-month and 3-months structured training programs for sleep lab technicians.
Sitting (L to R): Dr. Jayanthi Arulneyam (Neurology), Dr. Jayita Poduval (ENT), Dr. Subhasis Das (Physiology), Dr. King H Kisku (Pulmonology) Standing (L to R): Dr. Sathiyamoorthy P (Senior Resident), Mr. Mohan (Technician), Ms. Suganthi B (Senior Technologist), Dr. Rekha D (Senior Resident) (all from Physiology)