The Sleep Disorders Center of Alabama currently has a freestanding 4-bed center in a medical office building in the eastern section of Birmingham and an 8-bed in-hospital center at UAB Highlands Medical Center in South Birmingham. The center, with a total of 12 sleep beds at the two locations to accommodate the service area, conducts approximately 1400 clinical studies annually, and about 100 new patients are seen each month.

The state-of-the-art sleep suites offer full polysomnograms for sleep disordered breathing and continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP)/bilevel titration; multiple sleep latency testing (MSLT) for excessive daytime somnolence such as narcolepsy or idiopathic hypersomnolence; tests for abnormal behaviors during sleep such as rapid eye movement (REM) behavior disorder.

The Sleep Disorders Center of Alabama has a strong reputation in the state/region due to Dr. G. Vernon Pegram and Dr. Robert Doekel, who have been in sleep medicine for 40 and 27 years, respectively. The center received its sixth 5 year accreditation from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine in 2005.

Our Mission:
The Sleep Disorders Center of Alabama strives to provide our clients with appropriate staff, facilities, equipment and support services in delivering continually improving care in a most efficient and effective manner.

Our research center has extensive experience conducting Phase II-IV trials in the following therapeutic areas:

• Insomnia
• Narcolepsy
• Cataplexy
• Shift Work Sleep Disorder
• Restless Leg Syndrome
• Periodic Limb Movement Syndrome
• Obstructive Sleep Apnea
• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
• Fibromyalgia

The Sleep Disorders Center of Alabama has worked with many companies over the past years on numerous clinical trials. Some are as follows:

• Glaxo-Smith-Kline
• Vanda Pharmaceuticals
• Johnson and Johnson Pharmaceutical Research and Development
• Alza Corporation
• Pfizer
• Sanofi-Synthelabo
• Sanofi-Aventis
• Sepracor, Inc.
• Cephalon, Inc.
• Neurocrine Biosciences, Inc.
• Orphan Medical, Inc.
• Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America
• Merck Pharmaceuticals
• Wyeth-Ayerst
• Lorex Pharmaceuticals
• Department of Defense
• Abbott Laboratories
• Merck Foundation
• Upjohn Pharmaceuticals
• Hoffman-LaRoche
• NIH
• U.S.A.F.

All research studies are performed and retained at our state-of-the-art center located in east Birmingham on Montclair Road. At this location are four PSG or "sleep" rooms capable of acquiring completely digital recordings, which are easily converted to European Data Format for viewing by any central scoring site. The Sleep Disorders Center of Alabama has been designated by SANDMAN SLEEP DIAGNOSTICS as a "center of excellence" and they constantly update our equipment to keep up with today's rapidly advancing technology.

We are located a short 7 miles from the Birmingham International Airport and minutes from a variety of shopping and dining experiences in Birmingham's historical southside district.

The center has all the amenities to comfortably accommodate study monitors as well as patients. All the patient rooms have recently been remodel by a local interior decorator and feature all new bed room furniture, memory foam mattresses, HD LCD Cable TV , and private showers. Study monitors appreciate our quiet and spacious conference room with dedicated phone lines and internet access.

G. Vernon Pegram, Jr., Ph.D., ABSM
Board certified in Sleep Medicine; licensed clinical psychologist

Robert C. Doekel, Jr., M.D., ABSM
Board certified in Sleep Medicine, Internal Medicine, and Pulmonary Medicine

William G. Adams, Jr., M.D.
Board certified in Internal Medicine

Sheila Pegram RN, CCRC
Registered nurse and Certified Clinical Research Coordinator
12 years experience coordinating clinical trials

Brett Berry LPN, RPSGT, CCRC
Practical Nurse, Registered sleep technologist, Certified Clinical Research Coordinator
8 years experience in the field of sleep medicine and 3 coordinating clinical trials

Krager Vaughn, RPSGT, CRC
Registered sleep technologist, Clinical Research Coordinator
7 years experience in the field of sleep medicine and 2 coordinating clinical trials

A number of qualified and registered Sleep Technologists and Registered Respiratory Therapist to run overnight studies as well as titrate PAP.

The Sleep Disorders Center of Alabama is a freestanding practice and not affiliated with any hospital or other organization for the purposes of research. The center is not governed by an internal review board and normally utilizes a central IRB for clinical trials.

For patient recruitment, the Sleep Disorders Center of Alabama relies mostly on it's large database of clinical and research patients. Local print advertisement, radio, TV, and direct mail are also used to reach the densely populated Birmingham metro area residents and workforce.

For additional information, please contact:

Brett Berry
Phone: 205-599-1020 Ext. 109
Fax: 205-595-1503
bberry@sleepalabama.com

For more information, please contact:

Krager Vaughn, RPSGT, CRC
Sleep Disorders Center of Alabama
790 Montclair Road, Suite 200
Birmingham, AL 35213 USA
Phone: 205-599-1020
Fax: 205-595-1503
E-mail:

If you are interested in contacting this center to discuss placing a clinical trial there, please complete and send the E-mail form below. A representative from the research center will then follow up with you.

Name:
Address:
City:
State:
Zip:
Phone:
Email address:
Message:

Please note: A number of commercial online services display an error message after you click on Send. Please be assured that your message has been received.

Last updated on August 21, 2008