MINNEAPOLIS, August 6, 2008—The American Medical Association's Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement (PCPI) is seeking public comment on its new obstructive sleep apnea measurement set.

The measures evaluate physicians on the degree to which they assess patients using the apnea hypopnea index (AHI) or a respiratory disturbance index (RDI), the percentage of patients who were prescribed positive airway pressure therapy, patient adherence to positive airway pressure therapy, and physician documentation of sleep symptoms.

PCPI is a physician-led effort comprising over 100 national medical specialty and state medical societies; the Council of Medical Specialty Societies; American Board of Medical Specialties; experts in methodology and data collection; the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

PCPI’s activities are carried out through cross-specialty work groups established to develop performance measures for physicians from evidence-based clinical guidelines for select clinical conditions.

The sleep apnea measures were developed in collaboration by American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), the American Academy of Neurology, the College of Chest Physicians, the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, the American Psychiatric Association, the Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement®, and the National Committee for Quality Assurance.

The Obstructive Sleep Apnea measures are available at: www.ama-assn.org/ama/noindex/category/4397.html.

The comment period for this measurement set ends at 3:00 PM Central on Tuesday, September 2.