Situation

Insomnia is the most commonly reported sleep problem. It is a highly prevalent disorder that often goes unrecognized and untreated despite its adverse impact on health and quality of life.

Our challenge was to develop and distribute credible, up-to-date, peer-reviewed educational materials on the science, diagnosis and management of insomnia to a wide audience within a short time frame. The aim was to raise knowledge and awareness of insomnia in primary care and improve patient outcomes.

Solution

We elected to develop a stand-alone publication within the Royal Society of Medicine’s (RSM) International Congress and Symposium Series. The benefits of this choice included the strong reputation of the RSM, speed of development, a robust peer review process and an established distribution network. The resulting publication would also have an ISBN, making it available through libraries and cited on literature searches.

An expert round table meeting, attended by sleep experts from the US and UK, was convened at the RSM. The round-table proceedings were used to develop copy for the publication which was distributed to 20,000 primary care physicians.

Results

Development times were short but broad distribution was achieved. Positive feedback has been received from a number of readers with requests for reprints. To quote one recipient:

`I am in receipt of your recent publication entitled Update on the Science, Diagnosis and Management of Insomnia and I cannot thank you enough for this wonderful addition to our sleep medicine fellowship library. It has become required reading by the Fellows and we are all enjoying the masterful analysis of the material presented. Thank you very much for your generosity.’