Marc Donner

American Sleep Apnea Association

The American Sleep Apnea Association, founded in 1990, is a patient-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to the promotion of sleep health through research, advocacy and education. The ASAA engages patients in many ways including a national patient network called A.W.A.K.E. that provides free peer-to-peer support through local hospitals and dentist offices; an active website that provides education to 65,000 unique visitors a month; and through dynamic social media communities and discussion forums. Its CPAP Assistance Program (CAP) has provided over 6,000 medical equipment packages to sleep apnea patients over the last two years. Most recently, ASAA launched Sleeptember®, a new initiative to create fun and engaging online and community events in order to raise awareness of the public health impact of sleep loss, connections to comorbid health conditions, and raise funds for medical research. The ASAA is involved in groundbreaking research efforts such as the SleepHealth Mobile App Study that that was recently released in partnership with IBM Watson and Apple.