Quality Assurance in Polysomnography - A Korean experience and critical suggestions

Jeong, Do-Un

Journal of Korean Society Quality Assurance Health Care 1994;1(1): 124.
Published online May 30, 1994.

수면다원검사의 정도관리 - 한국에서의 경험 및 제언

정도언

서울대학교병원 신경정신과 및 수면다원검사실

Quality Assurance in Polysomnography - A Korean experience and critical suggestions

Do-Un Jeong

Department of Neuropsychiatry and Division of Sleep Studies, Seoul National University Hospital

Abstract

Polysomnography is an essential methodology for diagnosing and following up sleep disorders and doing researches on human sleep. Sleep medicine, mainly with the utilization of polysomnographic techniques, has developed itself as one of the promising fields in the 21st century medicine. Korea is not an exception in importing and developing sleep medicine into the conventional medicine. However, it still remains to be clarified what polysomnography is for and how it should be done, considering the relatively recent introduction of sleep medicine into Korea. The author, being a board-certified sleep medicine specailist, having experienced spreading out sleep medicine within Korea for the past four years, and having recently set up a major sleep study facility in Korea at Seoul National University Hospital, attempts in this introductory critical article to review the essential issues related to quality assurance in polysomnographic study of human sleep. Also, unconditional introduction of "automated" sleep scoring system, which has been found to have significantly reduced reliability in various studies including the author's own, is critically reviewed. The author suggests that quality assurance and training program should be initiated and established by a responsible sleep medicine-related organization such as the Korean Association of Sleep Medicine and Psychophysiology.

Key words Polysomnography;sleep medicine;quality assurance;automated sleep scoring;manual sleep scoring;