Sleep Clinic and Lab, Foothills Medical Centre
Millions of Canadians are affected by sleep disorders ranging from sleep-disordered breathing to insomnia to rarer disorders of excessive sleepiness. With increasing recognition of the far-reaching impacts of untreated sleep disorders as well as the expanding array of therapies, Sleep Medicine has developed into a subspecialty area that crosses the fields of Respirology, Neurology, Psychiatry, and many others.
Sleep Medicine in Calgary dates back nearly 40 years to pioneering research into the pathophysiology of what is now known as obstructive sleep apnea. Innovations such as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) and home sleep apnea testing have their origins at the University of Calgary and have contributed to the University’s strong international reputation in Sleep Medicine. The FMC Sleep Centre is a multidisciplinary academic sleep centre that comprises sleep physicians from a range of specialties, alternative care providers including psychologists and respiratory therapists, and a fully accredited and comprehensive sleep diagnostic facility to diagnose and manage patients across the severity spectrum.
The interprofessional and multidisciplinary team at the FMC Sleep Centre provides diagnostic and management services for the full spectrum of sleep disorders with an emphasis on tertiary/quaternary care of these disorders. Patients may be referred due to clinical symptoms such as excessive sleepiness or poor sleep quality, or for specialized care after initial sleep disorder management in a community setting. Patients with multimorbidity or who require tertiary/quaternary care of sleep-disordered breathing may be referred for further investigation and management after initial ambulatory testing at a respiratory homecare company.
The FMC Sleep Centre offers consultation and management by:
- Board-eligible/board-certified sleep physicians from respirology, neurology, and psychiatry
- Clinical psychologist with certification in Behavioural Sleep Medicine
- Experienced registered respiratory therapists.
Newly referred patients undergo a triage process and will be assigned to the most appropriate provider with an urgency classification commensurate with the patient’s clinical and sleep profile.
Patients are assessed in the University of Calgary Medical Clinic Area 1B, following which patients may initiate management for a sleep disorder. Some patients will undergo in-laboratory polysomnography at the FMC, either in a standard protocol or with additional measurements to assess for sleep-disordered breathing or neurological disorders. As an academic sleep centre, treatments are both evidence-based and state-of-the-art, and complex cases are reviewed in regularly scheduled multidisciplinary case conferences.
Referrals
Please direct referrals via: Connect Care (use the Ambulatory Referral Order for Sarcoidosis) or Fax completed referral form along with relevant documentation to Calgary Pulmonary Central Access and Triage 403-592-4201.
For additional information please consult the Alberta Referral Directory: Foothills Medical Centre Sleep Clinic
Contact Us
P: 403-944-2404
F: 403-270-2718
Sleep Specialists
Dr. W. Ward Flemons
MD, FRCPC
Dr. Flemons is a respirologist and Professor of Medicine at the University of Calgary. He helped to start the Foothills Medical Centre Sleep Lab with Bill Whitelaw and John Remmers, taking over as its Medical Director from Whitelaw shortly after it expanded from a research lab to a sleep clinic offering consultative care and clinical diagnostic testing. Flemons developed one of the first sleep apnea clinical prediction rules (N Engl J Med. 2002;347:498-504), the Sleep Apnea Quality of Life Index (Am J Respir Crit Care Med 1998;158:494-503) and led an international group that standardized breathing event definitions (Sleep 1999;22:667-89) which helped to advance sleep apnea research.
Dr. Kristin Fraser
MD, FRCPC, dipl ABSM
Dr. Fraser graduated from the University of Toronto Internal Medicine and Respirology training programs in 1997. She completed a one year Sleep Fellowship in Toronto, then moved to the University of Calgary in 1999. Over the past 20 years, Dr Fraser has served terms as Medical Director of the FMC Sleep Centre and Program Director for the Calgary fellowship program in Sleep Medicine. She is currently a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary where she is the Chair of the Collaborative Practice Unit and past-Director of Medical Simulation for the Undergraduate Medical Program. Her educational research has focused on instructional design and training health professionals for effective teamwork.
Dr. Patrick J. Hanly
MD, FRCPC, DABSM
Dr. Hanly is an Adjunct Professor in the Cumming School of Medicine and member of the Hotchkiss Brain Institute at the University of Calgary. He is a respiratory and sleep physician and a previous Medical Director of FMC Sleep Centre (2004-2023). His current focus is on clinical research with an emphasis on the long-term health consequences of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). He co-leads the Canadian Sleep and Circadian Network (CSCN), a multi-centre research network that follows a large longitudinal cohort of adult patients with OSA. Publications can be found here.
Dr. Alyssa Lip
MD, FRCPC
Dr. Lip is a respirologist at the Rockyview General Hospital who completed a one year sleep fellowship and a six month advanced fellowship in chronic ventilation at the University of Calgary. She is completing a Master of Health Profession Education. Publications can be found here.
Dr. Andrea Loewen
MD, FRCPC. DABIM
Dr. Loewen is a sleep and prolonged mechanical ventilation specialist with expertise in respiratory management of neuromuscular conditions, ALS, spinal cord injury, restrictive chest wall and airways diseases. Her practice is based out of the Peter Lougheed Centre, Calgary, the home of the Southern Alberta Chronic Ventilation Program and Neuromuscular Respiratory clinic. Dr. Loewen also works at the FMC Sleep Centre in sleep medicine with particular interest in polysomnography and ventilation titration and remote monitoring of ventilators. Dr. Loewen is a sleep educator, and clinical researcher.
Featured Publications
Dr. Tammy Moroz
PhD
Dr. Moroz is a sleep psychologist at the FMC Sleep Centre. She completed her PhD in clinical health psychology at Washington State University and a postdoctoral fellowship in behavioral sleep medicine at Stanford University. She is board certified in behavioral sleep medicine. Current research interest includes co-morbidity between insomnia and sleep apnea.
Dr. Marcus Povitz
MDCM, FRCPC, MSc, DRCPSC, Sleep Medicine Fellowship Program Director
Dr. Povitz is a Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Calgary. He is involved in clinical research in sleep disorders medicine and leads the Sleep Disorders Medicine training program.
Dr. Sachin Pendharkar
MD, FRCPC, MSc, DRCPSC ATSF, Medical Director
Dr. Pendharkar is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary and sleep and respiratory physician scientist. He has an active research program focusing on the design and evaluation of innovative models of care to improve access for patients with sleep disorders, with a specific emphasis on sleep-disordered breathing. Publications can be found here.
Dr. Willis H. Tsai
MD, FRCPC, FAASM, MSc
Dr. Tsai is a Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Departments of Medicine and Community Health Sciences at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. He is a respirologist and sleep specialist, with active research interests in health outcomes assessment, predictive analytics, and use of administrative data sets. Publications can be found here.
Dr. Jonathan Yeung Laiwah
MD, FRCPC
Dr. Jonathan Yeung Laiwah is a clinical lecturer with the Department of Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Calgary. He works as a sleep neurologist with subspecialty expertise in restless legs syndrome and central disorders of hypersomnolence. His major clinical practice involves movement disorders of sleep, circadian rhythm disorders, hypersomnia disorders, and parasomnias. He sees a mixture of adult sleep patients at Foothills Medical Center and pediatric sleep patients at Alberta Children's Hospital and does adult general neurology at Rockyview General Hospital.
Featured Publication