Meet the Experts
Richard P. Allen, PhD, Fellow American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Secretary of the World Association of Sleep Medicine (WASM) and Committee Member of World Sleep Day 2009
Research Associate of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, U.S.A. Read biography...
Richard P. Allen, PhD, Fellow American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Secretary of the World Association of Sleep Medicine (WASM) and Committee Member of World Sleep Day 2009
Research Associate of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, U.S.A.
Richard Allen is Assistant Professor and Research Associate of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. He founded and served as the Co–Director of the Johns Hopkins Sleep Disorders Center from 1978 – 1999. In 1999, he co–founded the Center for RLS at Johns Hopkins University. Professor Allen completed his undergraduate work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S.A. He attended both the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cambridge University in Cambridge, UK, for his graduate studies in psychology.
Professor Allen is a leading authority on sleep disorders and has published over 100 articles in international peer–reviewed journals on topics within this field. He is particularly interested in periodic limb movements, iron metabolism, dopamine, histamine, quality of life and Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS). He is a field editor for Sleep Medicine and a member of the following associations: American Psychological Association, Maryland Psychological Association, American Academy of Sleep Medicine (Fellow), Sleep Research Society, American Academy of Neurology (Affiliate member), and Movement Disorder Society, World Association of Sleep Medicine (Sec.), International Restless Legs Syndrome Study Group (member and Chair).
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K Ray Chaudhuri, MBBS, MD, FRCP, FRCP
Consultant Neurologist and Professor in Neurology, King's College and Lewisham Hospitals, London, UK
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K Ray Chaudhuri, MBBS, MD, FRCP, FRCP
Consultant Neurologist and Professor in Neurology, King's College and Lewisham Hospitals, London, UK
Professor Chaudhuri is Consultant Neurologist and Professor in Neurology/Movement Disorders at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College and a recognised teacher and active researcher within the Guy’s, King’s and St Thomas’ School of Medicine, both London, UK. He is also one of the medical directors of the National Parkinson Foundation International Centre of Excellence at King’s College and serves as chairman of the RLS UK and international Parkinson’s Disease Non–Motor Group (PDNMG), a member of the Movement Disorders Society Appointments Committee and the Task Force of Practice Parameter Group for PD and RLS with the American Academy Neurology. In addition, he is part of the steering group of the Medicines Management Committee and Gene Therapy Advisory Group for the Department of Health, UK, advisor of the Health Technology Assessment Committee of the Department of Health, UK, and is the lead clinician for the 18 Weeks programme for improving the management of PD patients initiated by the Department of Health, UK.
Professor Chaudhuri is the author of 168 papers including reviews, book chapters, co–editor of three books on PD and RLS (one in press) and over 150 published peer–reviewed abstracts. He has contributed extensively to educational radio and television interviews, newspaper articles and videos. He has also lectured extensively on PD and RLS at international meetings in Japan, continental Europe, India and Australia. His major research interests are drug treatment of PD and RLS, parkinsonism in minority ethnic groups within the UK and abroad and sleep problems in PD. In 2005, he was awarded the DSc degree by the University of London and received his personal Chair in neurology in 2007.
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Diego Garcia-Borreguero, MD
Diego Garcia-Borreguero, MD
Sleep Research Institute, Madrid, Spain
Dr. Garcia–Borreguero is currently Director of the Sleep Research Institute in Madrid. Until 2005, he was Director of the Sleep Disorders Center at the Department of Neurology of the Fundación Jiménez Díaz (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid). He has completed fellowships in Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, and underwent residency training at the Max Planck Institute in Munich, Germany. He received his medical degree from the University of Navarra (Pamplona, Spain) and completed his PhD at the University of Munich.
Dr. Garcia–Borreguero’s main area of research is Movement Disorders in Sleep, and Restless Legs Syndrome in particular, where he is an author of numerous publications and one of the world’s main experts. He is currently Vice President of the International Restless Legs Study Group and the European Restless Legs Study Group. Until 2008, he served in the Medical Advisory Board of the Restless Legs Foundation and was Secretary of the European Sleep Research Society.
In addition, he is a member of numerous professional organisations related to the field such as the World Association of Sleep medicine and the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (elected fellow).
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Birgit Högl, MD
Chair of the Publication Committee of the World Association of Sleep Medicine (WASM)
Department of Neurology & Sleep Disorders Clinic, Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria
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Birgit Högl, MD
Chair of the Publication Committee of the World Association of Sleep Medicine (WASM)
Department of Neurology & Sleep Disorders Clinic, Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria
Birgit Högl is Assistant Professor of Neurology and head of the Sleep Disorders Clinic at the Medical University of Innsbruck, Austria. She is the president of the Austrian Society of Sleep Medicine and Sleep Research/Austrian Sleep Research Association (ÖGSM/ASRA), member of the Executive Committee of the International RLS Study Group, secretary of the European RLS Study Group, and officer or member of several other national or international medical societies.
Professor Högl received her medical education and neurology training in Munich, Germany. From 1995 to 1997, she was a clinical research fellow with Professor Oscar Gershanik at the French Hospital in Buenos Aires, Argentina, working on sleep disorders and Parkinson’s disease. Throughout 1998, she was a member of the Movement Disorders and Sleep Group headed by Professor Claudia Trenkwalder at the Max–Planck–Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, Germany. In 1999, she moved to her current position. Her main areas of interest are Restless Legs Syndrome, motor disorders of sleep, parasomnias, narcolepsy, and disorders of sleep and wakefulness in neurological diseases.
Professor Högl has published many manuscripts in the field of sleep, and teaches on sleep disorders in regular lectures and practical courses to students, residents, and other professionals.
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Jacques Montplaisir, MD, PhD, CRCPc
Sleep Disorders Centre, Université de Montréal School of Medicine, Canada
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Jacques Montplaisir, MD, PhD, CRCPc
Sleep Disorders Centre, Université de Montréal School of Medicine, Canada
Jacques Montplaisir completed medical school at the University of Montréal in 1967, where he also obtained a PhD in neuroscience in 1972 under the supervision of Professor Herbert Jasper. From 1972 to 1975 he undertook a 3–year postdoctoral training at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and Stanford University. He subsequently returned to Canada where he graduated in Psychiatry from Montreal’s McGill University in 1976.
In 1977, Professor Montplaisir established the Sleep Disorders Center at the Hôpital du Sacré–Coeur de Montréal and in 2006 the Center for Advanced Studies in Sleep Medicine. The Center is affiliated with the Université de Montréal School of Medicine and has grown to comprise of ten full–time researchers and 25 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows working on sleep and biological rhythms.
Jacques Montplaisir is currently Professor in the departments of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at the University of Montréal where he also holds the Chair in Psychopharmacology, and the Canadian Government Chair in Sleep Disorders Medicine. In June 2005, he received the Distinguished Award of the Sleep Research Society, the highest distinction for a sleep researcher and in 2007 the Quebec Government Wilder Penfield Award for his outstanding contribution to Medical Sciences.
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Julian Spinks, BSc, MB BS, DGM
Julian Spinks, BSc, MB BS, DGM
General Practitioner, United Kingdom
Dr. Spinks is a full–time general practitioner working in a group practice in Strood, North Kent. He has a number of clinical interests including respiratory medicine/smoking cessation, diabetes and urogynaecology. Over recent years he has become interested in Restless Leg Syndrome and, in particular, the role of primary care professionals in the diagnosis and management of the condition.
Currently Dr. Spinks is working with secondary care colleagues to look at how to aid other primary care professionals who wish to learn about RLS. Dr. Spinks also writes for a number of medical newspapers on a wide variety of clinical subjects together with medical politics and the occasional piece of satire. Additionally, he is also a regular broadcaster on local and national radio and TV talking about a range of subjects from ‘bird flu’ to ‘vegetables on prescription’.
Dr. Spinks has been involved with health service administration for a number of years including as a member of a local Practice Based Commissioning Group and is the past chairman of the local division of the British Medical Association in North Kent.
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Claudia Trenkwalder, MD
Treasurer of the World Association of Sleep Medicine (WASM) and Committee Member of World Sleep Day 2009
University of Göttingen, Kassel, Germany
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Claudia Trenkwalder, MD
Treasurer of the World Association of Sleep Medicine (WASM) and Committee Member of World Sleep Day 2009
University of Göttingen, Kassel, Germany
Claudia Trenkwalder is Professor of Neurology at the University of Göttingen and Medical Director of the Paracelsus Elena Klinik Center of Parkinsonism and Movement Disorders, in Kassel, Germany. She started her clinical education in neurology and movement disorders at the University Hospital of the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich. She was head of the Movement Disorders and Sleep research group at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich, before moving to the Department of Clinical Neurophysiology at the University of Göttingen, in 2000.
She has published many papers on movement disorders and sleep, especially on the pathophysiology, genetics and treatment of restless legs syndrome. She is the Treasurer of the World Association of Sleep Medicine and member of the Executive Committee of the International RLS Study Group. In addition, she is a member of the International Executive Committee of the Movement Disorder Society, and of many national and international medical societies and boards.
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