Bahiana innovates once again with the provision of services to the community

On March 20th, the Sleep Clinic was opened in Bahiana Health. The space emerges after 10 years of research carried out by the International Center of Clinical Sleep Medicine and Research Research Group Bahiana, led by Professor Dr. Cristina Salles. The ceremony was attended by the vice-rector and coordinator of the Medicine course, Humberto Castro Lima Filho, the pro-rector of Research, Innovation and Stricto Sensu Postgraduate Studies, Atson Fernandes, the director of Bahiana Health, Luiz Ritt, the Vice-Rector of Extension, Carolina Pedroza, in addition to representatives from the Sleep Institute and guest doctors who participated in the III Sleep Bahia, a seminar dedicated to the topic of sleep, which took place on March 21, at Campus Brotas.

According to Dr. Cristina Salles, the new facility will begin to serve patients in April and will have a multidisciplinary team. "The outpatient clinic will treat patients with difficulty initiating and maintaining sleep, snoring, respiratory arrest during sleep, among many others," she said, adding that there are more than 100 sleep disorders. "Since 72% of Brazilians have some kind of sleep problem, knowledge about diagnosis and treatment is essential. Sleep Medicine is new, having emerged in the 60s, and many professionals have not yet had contact with this area during their studies. We are making a difference," explains the researcher.

"Research, teaching and extension always start from the population's needs. Here we created a health service because there is a treatment gap and we have to understand how to Bahiana does to solve this. Today we have three Sleep Clinics in Bahia: one at the Professor Edgard Santos University Hospital, one at the Otávio Mangabeira Hospital and now the one at Bahiana. We are willing to work in a network and with collaboration", said the vice-rector of Bahiana, Dr. Humberto Castro Lima. According to Luiz Ritt, the Bahiana Health is focused on patient care, with the premise of training undergraduate students, curricular extension and research. "This is an environment where we can generate data for research and publications, therefore, generate science and train people. This new service already brings all these fronts. The research group has publications, has teaching activities with undergraduate students and, with the outpatient clinic, reaches the community to crown this beautiful work that has already been done", stated Luiz Ritt.