Alon Y. Avidan

The Guest Editor of this issue of Seminars in Neurology is Alon Yosefian Avidan. Dr. Avidan is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of Michigan, and is Director of the University of Michigan Sleep Disorders Clinic. Although sleep is his area of expertise, he also has a great interest and strong commitment to education.

Dr. Avidan received his Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from the University of California and then attended Medical School at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Washington, DC. He also obtained a Master of Public Health from George Washington School of Public Health. Dr. Avidan did an Internship at the Loma Linda University Medical Center and his Neurology Residency at the Georgetown University Medical Center, where he was Chief Resident. He then did a Fellowship in Clinical Neurophysiology and Sleep Disorders at the Cleveland Clinic under Drs. Dudley Dinner and Nancy Foldvary-Schaefer.

Dr. Foldvary-Schaefer introduced Dr. Avidan to her friend and colleague, Dr. Beth Malow, and that is how he began his career at the University of Michigan. Dr. Avidan dedicates these issues on sleep to his teacher and mentor, Dr. Michael Aldrich. When Dr. Aldrich became ill, he gave his NIH sponsored grant (Sleep Academic Award) to Dr. Avidan. This was a special grant to develop tools and modules to facilitate sleep medicine education for medical students and physicians. Dr. Avidan tells me that the work on this grant was pivotal in his academic career and allowed him to combine his love for education with his interest in sleep medicine. Dr. Avidan has developed educational modules for teaching sleep topics, which are currently on the American Academy of Sleep Medicine Web site. He has also participated in developing SAFER, an education module designed to teach residents about fatigue and alertness management during residency training. At the University of Michigan, Dr. Avidan provides lectures to the Department of Neurology, the Department of Internal Medicine, the Department of Anesthesiology, and the Department of Otolaryngology on Sleep Disorders. He is also a popular lecturer at the American Academy of Neurology and at the American College of Chest Physicians.

Dr. Avidan is the Chair of the Resident Education Committee in the Department of Neurology at the University of Michigan, and organizes not only a weekly lecture series in Clinical Neurology for Fellows, Residents, and Medical Students, but also organizes weekly clinical conferences, research lectures, and journal clubs in Sleep Medicine for Fellows, Residents, Faculty, and Staff. He supervises Residents and Fellows in the Sleep Clinics, and supervises Fellows in reading nocturnal polysomnograms and multiple sleep latency tests.

Dr. Avidan is Special Sections Editor, Clinical Cornerstones in Sleep Medicine for Sleep Medicine. He is also Special Sections Editor for WebWatch, Sleep Medicine, and an ad hoc Reviewer for Annals of Neurology, Sleep Medicine, and Sleep. He is the Chair of the Sleep Medicine Education Section for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

When I asked Dr. Avidan to be the Guest Editor of an issue of Seminars in Neurology on Sleep he attacked this project with tremendous enthusiasm, the result of which were a sufficient number of manuscripts for two issues of Seminars in Neurology. This issue includes topics on circadian rhythm disorders, parasomnias, obstructive and nonobstructive sleep apnea, restless legs syndrome and periodic limb movements, narcolepsy, nocturnal seizures, and sleep in epilepsy. An approach to the patient with a sleep complaint is provided as well as a discussion of the neurophysiological mechanisms of sleep and wakefulness, sleep and its disorders in children, and the use of sleep studies in neurologic practice. The second issue on Sleep will include sleep and specific neurological disorders as well as the neurocognitive consequences of sleep deprivation, sleep-related headache syndromes, functional neuroimaging of sleep, and case studies in sleep medicine.

Dr. Avidan is currently single although he has a wonderful girlfriend Heather. He tells me that he enjoys international travel with her, and they have visited Cambodia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Maldives, and Thailand. This summer they plan to visit India and Nepal where they will do some trekking. He enjoys jogging and swimming almost every day and likes digital photography, gardening, and cooking.

We are delighted that Dr. Avidan took on this project with the compassion and enthusiasm that he did, and feel certain that our readers will be as grateful to him as we are.