Research Areas
Advancing Medicine and Care for Pediatric Sleep Medicine Disorders
Our clinicians and sleep scientists have led or participated in pivotal pediatric sleep research studies, expanding knowledge of breathing mechanics, and helping advance the treatment of sleep-disordered breathing, hypersomnia, narcolepsy, and other sleep disorders. Many of our sleep experts serve on national panels that help make decisions on the standards of care and guide other clinicians in the nation.
UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s pediatric sleep specialists engage largely in clinical and population studies, including multi-center National Institute of Health-sponsored trials conducted in partnership with other sleep experts around the country. We offer clinical trials in medication research for hypersomnia, narcolepsy and insomnia. Likewise, our physician scientists are collaborating with a team of researchers studying the effects of long-COVID on sleep to improve the knowledge and treatment of youth and young adults with this chronic condition.
Carolyn levers-Landis', PhD, main area of research focus is in the area of weight management and sleep parameters (e.g., duration, regularity, and timing). She is on the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine (SBSM) Paper Development Subcommittee member and helps to review and manage the development of consensus statements and clinical practice guidelines for the society. She has been a member of the SBSM's Education and Scientific Review Subcommittees for several years planning the Boot Camp for the Diplomate in Behavioral Sleep Medicine and their annual conference. In 2023, she gave a key note address at the annual SBSM conference. She collaborates with partners in research and is the co-Investigator on the DOSA study with Dr. Sally Ibrahim. Dr. Iever-Landis is also partnering with the PATS trial to investigate the relationships of weight and sleep parameters. As a journal associate editor, she also provides feedback to national research projects and manuscripts. Clinically, Dr. levers-Landis treats patients from 6 months to 25 years and their families for behavioral treatment of sleep disorders, including insomnia, circadian rhythm disorders, hypersomnia/narcolepsy, etc. using cognitive-behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) and other variations of this (CBT-H for hypersomnia).
Sleep Medicine specialists at UH Rainbow Babies & Children’s are participating in the National Institute of Health's Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery (RECOVER) Initiative. The national program aims to better understand, treat and prevent long-COVID. Researchers are studying how long-COVID contributes to disordered sleep in the 1 to 2% of children who have had COVID to determine how to treat these patients more effectively. Sally Ibrahim, MD, partners with the youth with long-COVID clinic and does research with this group.
Moshe Prero, MD, is a pediatric pulmonologist, fellowship-trained in both pediatric pulmonology and sleep medicine. As a pediatric sleep expert, Dr. Prero is most interested in how children sleep and supporting those who need assistance to maintain normal breathing. His research interests include sleep-disordered breathing and hypoventilation in children with neuromuscular disease.
In addition to his clinical pursuits, Dr. Prero’s retrospective studies examine pulmonary manifestations of neuromuscular weakness and the impact of disease-modifying therapies on pulmonary and sleep outcomes. He monitors, among other clinical outcomes, if patients are healthier or require less intervention than children who do not receive disease-modifying therapies.
Dr. Prero studies potentially transformative changes in his field. The emergence of disease-modifying therapies in 2017 significantly changed the treatment and prognosis of many patients with neuromuscular diseases, including those with spinal muscular atrophy and Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Prior to these advances, such patients often faced a life expectancy of two years or less, or they depended on ventilators to breathe. With these new disease-modifying therapies, many infants and children with neuromuscular conditions no longer require invasive or non-invasive ventilation. In fact, some patients may do well enough to walk independently and avoid long-term pulmonary issues.
Throughout his research, Dr. Prero promotes knowledge, clinical advances and updated disease-specific guidelines and protocols for monitoring and treating respiratory and sleep disorders in children with neuromuscular conditions, expounding the use of polysomnography to assess pulmonary function and respiratory symptoms, among other diagnostic and clinical approaches.
Sally Ibrahim, MD, is lead site investigator for the down syndrome and sleep apnea study (DOSA) trial, a study examining the treatment of OSA with oxygen therapy in patients with Down Syndrome. She was also the lead investigator for the PATS trial. Dr. Ibrahim has research interests in pediatric sleep health, sleep disorders including insomnia, narcolepsy, hypersomnia, circadian rhythm disorders and sleep disordered breathing. She is involved with adult clinical trials in the treatment of narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia. Clinically, Dr. Ibrahim treats patients from birth to adulthood with any sleep disorder. Dr. Ibrahim also teaches and trains the next generation of sleep medicine physicians within the sleep medicine fellowship program.
Kristie Ross, MD, is a pediatric pulmonologist and fellowship-trained in both pediatric pulmonology and sleep medicine. As a pediatric sleep expert, Dr. Ross is most interested in the interplay with asthma and breathing in sleep. Her research interests include sleep-disordered breathing, asthma and pulmonary-sleep investigations. Dr. Ross was lead author in the investigation of asthma outcomes in the PATS trial. She is involved with the DOSA trial and offers guidance to other investigators through her expertise in pulmonary-sleep mechanisms. Throughout her research, Dr. Ross promotes knowledge and clinical advances in pulmonary and sleep medicine.
James Spilsbury, PhD, and Sally Ibrahim, MD, are validating actigraphy for the use in children. Actigraphy is an instrument used in sleep clinics to examine certain sleep parameters. This validation study is examining the use of a particular device, Geneactiv, for its ability to detect sleep as compared with the gold standard polysomnography in children.