Sleep Centers of Middle Tennessee Celebrates 30 years and Introduces New Sleep Technology

Sleep Centers of Middle Tennessee, PLLC (SCMT), one of the largest sleep medicine practices in the US, is celebrating its 30th anniversary by introducing a revolutionary new technology called KairosPAP™ (KPAP™) which may replace continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) to treat obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).

In a recently published study with Harvard Medical School in the journal SLEEP MEDICINE (1), 93-95% of new patients preferred the comfort of KPAP™ over CPAP, and KPAP™ reduced the troublesome leak associated with CPAP by more than half. The KPAP™ algorithm reduces the pressure of CPAP by as much as 5 cmH2O for most of the respiratory cycle yet still providing the same therapy.

KPAP™ was invented by William H. Noah, MD, who also founded SCMT. Dr. Noah started practicing Sleep Medicine in Murfreesboro in 1994 and now SCMT includes four Middle Tennessee locations (Murfreesboro, Clarksville and Franklin) with a new Nashville location at TriStar Centennial Hospital opening in December. The current locations receive nearly 15,000 new referrals each year from other Middle Tennessee physicians and advanced practice providers. SCMT has an extensive home sleep testing program and four accredited sleep laboratories but is mainly focused on patient visits. SCMT is also heavily involved in research with multiple academic centers including University of Utah, Middle Tennessee State University, and Harvard Medical School. “30 years and 100,000 current patients are a lot, but we keep growing,” said Dr. Noah. “We have an incredible group of 15 sleep medicine providers led by Gabriel Tallent, MD, who brings his Mayo Clinic-trained skills to Middle Tennessee. Snoring is not only annoying, but also dangerous to your health. We are here to protect Middle Tennesseans from this health hazard for another 30 years.”

In 2022, research by SCMT and Dr. Noah began to change the whole world’s understanding of upper airway in OSA and how CPAP should be delivered. Dr Noah and Franklin native Craig Salazar, previous president of SCMT, founded SleepRes, Inc which initially launched the V-Com® to improve comfort and decrease side effects with CPAP. In a recent study with University of Utah and Harvard (2), the V-Com® was found to reduce leak and increase usage time in long-term CPAP users.

After releasing V-Com®, SCMT and SleepRes engineers developed KairosPAP (KPAP™). Kairos is a Greek word meaning, “the right time,” and KPAP™ only provides the therapy pressure at the “right time.” This allows patients needing CPAP to be treated with much lower pressures, and the pressure is provided in a more natural way, leading to less noise, less side effects, and much more comfort. The hope is that KPAP will provide treatment to the millions who could not tolerate CPAP and make the experience better for those that can. SleepRes plans to release their own revolutionary CPAP devices with KPAP™ and masks to the US market in 2025. Obviously, SCMT and Middle Tennesseans will have first access to these novel devices and masks.

“Not only does Dr. Noah and Sleep Centers of Middle Tennessee provide the highest quality sleep healthcare, but they have taken a difficult to tolerate medical therapy [CPAP] and reengineered the entire pressure delivery algorithm yielding a much-improved treatment for sleep apnea that will benefit millions of patients,” said David P. White, MD, Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School. “We are proud to be working with this research team to evolve new, state-of-the-art technology.”

With a comprehensive array of services, SCMT employs a dedicated team of sleep specialists: board-certified physicians, advanced practice providers, sleep respiratory therapists, and sleep technologists who collaborate to ensure each patient receives personalized care.

“We are 100 dedicated staff members constantly working on ways to better serve not only our patients, but patients around the world,” said Kami Harold, the new president of SCMT. “It is incredible to see how we have changed the whole field. But our everyday focus is still listening intently to our own patients and trying to meet their needs. Some things must never change.” For more information about Sleep Centers of Middle Tennessee and their comprehensive services, please visit www.sleepcenterinfo.com, email info@sleepcenterinfo.com, or call 615-893-4896. For information about KPAP™ or V-Com®, please visit www.SleepRes.com
Note: SleepRes, Inc. devices and masks are not yet cleared by FDA.