Choosing Treatment: Matching Needs to Therapy

Dr. Thorpy is a Professor of Neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Director of the Sleep-Wake Disorders Center in the Department of Neurology at Montefiore Medical Center, both in New York. In addition to treating patients with sleep disorders, he conducts research in narcolepsy, insomnia, and sleep apnea. He is President of the New York State Society of Sleep Medicine, Past President of the Sleep Section of the Academy of Neurology, and Past Secretary of the National Sleep Foundation. In 1993 Dr. Thorpy received the Nathaniel Kleitman Award from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, one of the field’s highest honors, and in 2012 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Sleep Foundation.

Born in New Zealand, Dr. Thorpy earned his medical degree from the University of Otago Medical School. After receiving postgraduate training in Dunedin, New Zealand; Bombay, India; and London, England, he completed his residency in neurology at the State University of New York in Syracuse and a neuroendocrinology fellowship at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Medical Center. Dr. Thorpy is board certified in sleep medicine.

He has published extensively on narcolepsy, insomnia, and sleep disorders. He chaired the first International Classification of Sleep Disorders and has published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, including publications in journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine. His numerous books include The Encyclopedia of Sleep and Sleep Disorders, Parasomnias (2010), Sleepiness (2011), Neuroimaging of Sleep and Sleep Disorders (2012), Genetics of Sleep and Sleep Disorders (2013), Narcolepsy: a Clinical Guide (2016), and SleepMultiMedia, The Computerized Textbook of Sleep Medicine (v12).0 (2023).

Dr. Thorpy has given more than 100 television, radio, and print interviews on sleep disorders.

Dr. R. Robert Auger is a consultant in Mayo Clinic’s Center for Sleep Medicine with wide-ranging interests in the field, particularly with respect to circadian rhythm sleep-wake disorders and disorders of hypersomnolence.  He is one of only several sleep medicine physicians who interfaces with the adolescent population. After receiving his medical degree from the University of Minnesota Medical School, Dr. Auger completed internship and residency at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. Following his Sleep Medicine Fellowship at Mayo Clinic, he then joined the staff with a joint appointment in Sleep Medicine and Psychiatry & Psychology.

Dr. Auger has served as Chair of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine’s (AASM) Circadian Rhythm Membership Section, the Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorders Practice Parameters Update Task Force, and of the Circadian Rhythm Sleep-Wake Disorders Work Group for revision of the International Classification of Sleep Disorders. He has also participated in AASM Hypersomnia Practice Guideline Task Forces. He recently edited the book “Circadian Rhythm Sleep-Wake Disorders: An Evidence-Based Guide for Clinicians and Investigators.”

Farah Hasan received a BSc in Biology and Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. She is currently pursuing an MSc in the Health Science Education Graduate Program at McMaster, and she is a Graduate Scholar and Fellow of the McMaster Education Research, Innovation and Theory (MERIT) Program. Her research explores the efficacy of a virtual reality application for teaching anatomy.

Farah sits on the Expert Advisory Board for Project Sleep as a patient advocate. She is also a trained speaker with the Rising Voices program and engages diverse audiences and communities through advocacy presentations and talks, sharing her experience as a person living with idiopathic hypersomnia.