5th Clinical Update Sleep: “a virtual briefing”
I write these lines while we are in the middle of a large worldwide pandemic with COVID-19, affecting tens of millions of lives directly and causing many deaths, while indirectly affecting a third of the world population during lockdown. “Unprecedented” is a fairly commonly used but accurate word these days. We had originally planned to bring you our regular biennial Clinical Update Sleep (available at https://www.guysandstthomasevents.co.uk/5th-clinical-update-sleep-international-conference-2021/), a style that has been developed over the years. The Royal College of Physicians was booked and the speakers for the parallel programmes covering all recent aspects of Sleep had been confirmed. It is therefore with great regret that we will not be able to meet in person during the pandemic due to social distancing and other public health measures. However, instead we will provide you with a free webinar entitled “a virtual briefing” (available at https://www.guysandstthomasevents.co.uk/clinical-update-sleep-2020-a-virtual-briefing/) on the 16th October 2020. We will postpone the face-to-face event, currently with the assumed date being 19th March 2021.
In the webinar, we will talk to you about the latest on sleep in times of COVID-19, presenting original data by the British Sleep Society (BSS) National Early Detection Screening. We will host a lecture by Prof. Dieter Riemann, an international expert in the field of Insomnia and editor of the Journal of Sleep Research, founder of the European Insomnia Network and Treasurer of the ESRS. Furthermore, we will bring you an update on obstructive sleep apnoea and hypertension, including results from a recent meta-analysis on the effect of CPAP therapy on subgroups of patients published in the European Respiratory Journal, and a starting worldwide individual patient meta-analysis, the ANDANTE2020 collaboration. Last, but not least, we will have an update on highlights of the special issue of the Journal of Thoracic Disease related to the Clinical Update Sleep.
We hope that you will find time to join us, in October or in March, and we look forward to meeting you again in person. We wish you and your family to remain safe during the pandemic and remain grateful for your ongoing support and interest in sleep.
Acknowledgments
Funding: None.
Footnote
Provenance and Peer Review: This article was commissioned by the editorial office for the series “5th Clinical Update Sleep” published in Journal of Thoracic Disease. The article did not undergo external peer review.
Conflicts of Interest: The author has completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at http://dx.doi.org/10.21037/jtd-cus-2020-preface). The series “5th Clinical Update Sleep” was commissioned by the editorial office without any funding or sponsorship. JS served as the unpaid Guest Editor of the series and serves as an unpaid editorial board member of Journal of Thoracic Disease. JS’s contribution was partially supported by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre based at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London.
Ethical Statement: The author is accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
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