Chief Medical Officer
Board Certified in Sleep Medicine and Psychiatry & Neurology

Dr. Jeffrey Durmer is a co-founder of Fusion Sleep and serves as Chief Medical Officer. He is responsible for all patient care and medical decision making in the Fusion Sleep Medicine Program. Dr. Durmer directs the Sleep Medicine Fellowship, the Sleep4Safety Medical Program, the Fusion Sleep Center, the Fusion Sleep clinical research program, and he evaluates patients in the Fusion Sleep Clinic.

Dr. Durmer is one of the nation's leading experts in Sleep Medicine. He is board certified in Sleep Medicine by both the American Board of Sleep Medicine (D.ABSM) and the American Board of Internal Medicine (D.ABIM), and in Neurology by American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (D.ABP&N). In addition he holds a PhD degree in Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dr. Durmer sits on the Medical Advisory Board for the Restless Legs Foundation and the Healthy Trucking Association of America and holds an appointment of adjunct Professor at Georgia State University, Department of Allied Health Sciences. Dr. Durmer directed the Emory University Sleep Laboratory and Egleston Children's Hospital Sleep Medicine program prior to his current role as the Chief Medical Officer and Medical Director of Fusion Sleep.

Dr. Durmer has performed basic neuroscientific research on neural systems involved in arousal, alerting and sleep regulation in animals and humans over the past two decades. His work in phenotype analysis of Restless Legs Syndrome in children and adults with co-morbid conditions such as ADHD, iron deficiency and other neurological disorders resulted in the development of the first pediatric RLS standardized clinical interview tool for clinical research. He also directs clinical and translational research projects at Fusion Sleep focused on interventions for RLS, sleep disorders associated with Parkinson's disease, sleep apnea and insomnia. In addition, he collaborates with researchers from many different fields of neurology, circadian biology, oncology and pediatrics.

Autobiography

Before training in internal medicine, neurology, and sleep medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, my first love was (and still is) learning and teaching the science of the brain. As an undergraduate I could not choose between psychology and biology as majors, so I decided to study both. Things have not changed, and I am still fascinated by the intersection of the mind and brain as a topic for scientific inquiry and medical practice.

During my PhD training in neuroscience at Penn, I realized that some of the most profound scientific questions are relevant to our everyday medical problems. For instance; why do we sleep and what does sleep do? These two rather simple questions have been argued over by scientists for hundreds of years.

Recently we have begun to understand the importance of sleep for good health as well as the basic brain mechanisms that regulate this quiescent state which occupies 1/3 of our life span.

Following my medical training, I embarked on a journey of scientific discovery working with many world-renown neuroscientists at the University of Pennsylvania and Emory University. As an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology, Director of the Emory Sleep Laboratory and Director of the Pediatric and Adolescent Sleep Clinic at Emory for the past 3 years, I led a team dedicated to patients of all ages with sleep and wake problems. Our scientific work, funded by the National Institutes of Health and multiple foundations grants, produced exciting results related to Restless Legs Syndrome, Attention Deficit/ Hyperactivity Disorder, and iron deficiency.

At Fusion Sleep, my role as Chief Medical Officer is to provide you with the latest diagnostic and therapeutic developments in the field of sleep medicine. Using my years of clinical and research experience, I strive to bring the science of sleep to the bedside. In doing so, I intend to offer you the highest quality of care available as well as a chance to experience the future of sleep medicine as it is discovered.

Sincerely yours,
Jeffrey Scott Durmer, MD, PhD
Diplomate American Board of Sleep Medicine

Executive Roles

• Member of the Medical Advisory Board for the Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation (RLS)
• Clinical science consultant and investigator with multiple pharmaceutical companies.
• Adjunct Professor, Georgia State University, Atlanta GA
• Past Assistant Professor, Emory University, Atlanta GA (2003 - 2006)
• Past Director of the Emory Sleep Laboratory and the Pediatric & Adolescent Sleep Medicine Program.
• Grants & Publications
• RLS Foundation funding to study genotype- phenotype relationships of RLS, ADHD, and iron deficiency.
• Authored an extensive list of papers and book chapters.
• Received multiple training grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Education

• Ph.D. degree in Neuroscience from the University of Pennsylvania.
• M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
• Adult & Pediatric Neurology and sleep fellowship training at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
• Board Certified in Neurology & Psychiatry (ABP&N)
• Board Certified in Adult and Pediatric Sleep Medicine (ABSM)

Publications & Talks

Invited Lectures during 2005-2006:

2008 February/ Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine: "The Neurobiology of Sleep and Arousal Disorders", Suwanee, GA

2007 November/ New Jersey Sleep Society: "Diagnosis and Treatment of Common Parasomnias, Nocturnal Seizures, and Movement Disorders", New Brunswick, NJ

2007 June/ SLEEP 2007: "Periodic Limb Movement Disorder in Children: Medical Therapies", Minneapolis, MN

2007 June/ SLEEP 2007: "Pediatric PLMD Clinical Identification and Therapy", Minneapolis, MN

2007 April/ Brain Tumor Survivorship: "What are the issues? CHOA Annual Meeting: Sleep, Wake, Circadian Rhythms and Brain Tumors", Atlanta, GA

2007 March/ 3^rd Annual Pediatric Sleep Medicine Conference at Amelia Island: "Treatment of RLS and PLMD in Children: Is there a concensus?", Amelia Island, FL

2006 August/ Brown University, Dement Fellow's Lecture: "RLS in Children: Clinical research and practice", Providence, RI

2006 June/ Oregon Health Sciences University, Neurology Grand Rounds: "Identification and Treatment of Restless Legs Syndrome in Children", Portland, OR

2006 June/ Oregon Council of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: "Differential Diagnosis of Parasomnias in Children and Adolescents", Portland, OR

2006 June/ Oregon Council of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: "Pediatric and Adolescent Restless Legs Syndrome", Portland, OR

2006 May/ Emory University Department of Rehabilitation Medicine Grand Rounds: "Nocturnal Rehabilitation Medicine", Atlanta, GA 2006 February/ American Academy of Sleep Medicine Advanced Sleep Medicine Course: "The Diagnosis and Treatment of Parasomnias", La Jolla, CA

2006 February/ American Academy of Dental Sleep Medicine Course: "Symptom-based Approach to Dental Sleep Medicine", La Jolla, CA. (Invited Lectures Cont'd) (J.S.Durmer CV, pg.4)

2005 February/ Pediatric Sleep Medicine: Priorities for Research, Patient Care, Policy and Education Conference, Amelia Island, FL.

Guest Faculty during 2005-2006:

2006 August/ Brown University, Dement Fellow Retreat, Providence, RI

2006 March/ Pediatric Sleep Medicine: Co-Chair, Sleep and ADHD, Amelia Island, FL

2006 March/ Pediatric Sleep Medicine: Chair, Infant Sleep Symposium, Amelia Island, FL

2005 June/ Associated Professional Sleep Societies Annual Meeting, Symposium on PLMS and RLS in Children, Denver, CO

2005 February/ Pediatric Sleep Medicine: Research Blitz, Amelia Island, FL

2005 February/ Pediatric Sleep Medicine: Pediatric Sleep Medicine Training Symposium, Amelia Island, FL

Journal Reviewer

Sleep 2004-present

The Neurologist 2003-2005

Papers

Durmer JS and Chervin R. Pediatric Sleep Medicine. AAN Continuum Series (in preparation) Durmer JS: Monitoring PLM in Children. Sleep Review, 6(4):49-51, 2005

Durmer JS and Dinges DW.: Neurocognitive consequences of sleep deprivation. Seminars in Neurology, 25:(1) 117-129, 2005.

Durmer JS and Rosenquist AC.: Ibotenic acid lesions in the pedunculopontine region result in recovery of visual orienting in the hemianopic cat. Neuroscience, 106:(4) 765-781, 2001.

Rosenquist AC, Ciaramitaro VM, Durmer JS, Wallace SF, Todd WE.: Ibotenic acid lesions of the superior colliculus produce longer lasting deficits in visual orienting behavior than aspiration lesions in the cat. Progress in Brain Research, 112:117-130, 1996.

Book Chapters

Durmer JS. Restless Legs Syndrome, in Ferri's Clinical Advisor. FF Ferri, Ed. Elsevier Mosby, Philadelphia, PA., 2004-2006.

Durmer JS. Obstructive Sleep Apnea, in Ferri's Clinical Advisor. FF Ferri, Ed. Elsevier Mosby, Philadelphia, PA., 2004-2006. Durmer JS. Narcolepsy, in Ferri's Clinical Advisor. FF Ferri, Ed. Elsevier Mosby, Philadelphia, PA., 2004-2006.

Durmer JS, and Solomon D. Dizziness and vertigo in the older adult, in Clinical Neurology of the Older Adult. JS Sirven and BL Malamut, Eds. Lippincott, Williams and Wilkins, Philadelphia, PA., 2002

Abstracts

2004 Associated Professional Sleep Societies, 18:251 Ambulatory measurement of periodic leg movements in children with and without restless legs symptoms. Durmer JS, Bliwise DL, Rye DB.

1996 Society for Neuroscience, 26:252.6 Small volume retrograde tracer injections into the superior colliculus of the cat reveal an anatomical substrate for recovery of visual orientation response in the hemianopic cat. Durmer JS & Rosenquist AC.

1995 Society for Neuroscience, 25:265.14 Visual orienting responses in the hemianopic visual field of the cortically blind cat can be restored by site-specific GABA-ergic disinhibition of the superior colliculus. Ciaramitaro V, Durmer JS, Todd WE, & Rosenquist AC.

1994 Society for Neuroscience, 24:485.16 Ibotenic acid lesions of the pedunculopontine nucleus restore visual orienting responses in the previously hemianopic visual field of the cortically blind cat. Durmer JS, Ciaramitaro V, Todd WE, & Rosenquist AC.

1994 Society for Neuroscience, 24:485.14 GABAa mediated disinhibition of the superior colliculus restores visual orienting responses in the previously hemianopic visual field of the cortically blind cat. Ciaramitaro V, Durmer JS, Todd WE, & Rosenquist AC.

Invited Manuscripts

2005 RLS Foundation Medical Bulletin – Children and RLS (See www.rls.org).