Samuel T. Kuna, MD

Dr. Sam Kuna is a professor of medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, PA. He has a joint appointment at the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz Veterans Affairs Medical Center where he serves as Chief of the Sleep Medicine Section and medical director of the VISN 4 Eastern Regional Sleep Center. His research focuses on patient-centered outcomes and novel methods of service delivery. He co-led the Veterans Sleep Apnea Treatment Trial that found that patients with sleep apnea evaluated with home sleep testing have functional outcomes and CPAP adherence that are not clinically inferior to those outcomes in patients receiving in-laboratory testing. Dr. Kuna’s recent research interest is to develop telemedicine-based pathways for the remote diagnosis and management of patients with sleep apnea. He conducted a study showing that providing daily internet access of wirelessly transmitted CPAP data to patients with obstructive sleep apnea improves their treatment use. In 2014, Dr. Kuna was awarded funding from the VA Center for Innovation to develop a web-based platform for the diagnosis and treatment of veterans with OSA. The resulting Remote Veteran Apnea Management Platform (REVAMP) is designed to standardize the information being collected from veterans across the Veterans Health Administration. Combining REVAMP with home sleep testing, autoCPAP treatment and clinical video teleconferencing creates a remote ambulatory management pathway that improves access to care for veterans with sleep apnea and builds a national high performance sleep medicine network to assess patient-centered outcomes.