Dr. Suresh is a Pediatric Anesthesiologist and Pain Medicine specialist who specializes in acute pain management and regional anesthesia in children. He is vastly published in many areas in pediatric anesthesia and has served in leadership positions in the American Board of Anesthesiology, International Anesthesia Research Society, American Society of Regional Anesthesia and PAin Medicine, and Society for Pediatric Anesthesia.

I finished my training at Robert Wood Johnson/Barnabas Health and completed pediatric anesthesia fellowship at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. I’ve been faculty at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center for over 10 years, where I have dedicated the majority of my time to anesthetic management of patients undergoing diagnostic procedures in radiology for the evaluation of obstructive sleep apnea. 10 years ago, our team published a protocol for drug induced sleep endoscopy (DISE) and Cine MRIs of the upper airway that remains the standard for these procedures in terms of anesthetic management. We have published additional papers regarding nuance of how and where these procedures are performed. Additionally, I have interests in intraoperative neurophysiology and quality improvement and have given lectures and published papers in these fields.

Dr. Rahn is an Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, where he recently completed fellowship in Pediatric Anesthesiology. Dr. Rahn completed his residency training at the University of Florida in Gainesville.

Patrick L. Purdon, Ph.D., is a Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine and Professor of Bioengineering (by Courtesy) at Stanford University School of Medicine. Dr. Purdon received his A.B. in Engineering Sciences from Harvard College in 1996, his M.S. in Electrical Engineering from MIT in 1998, and his Ph.D. in Biomedical Engineering from MIT in 2005. Dr. Purdon’s research focuses on the mechanisms of anesthesia, methods to solve the bioelectromagnetic inverse problem, and novel technologies for brain monitoring. He has published over 130 peer-reviewed publications, is an inventor on 19 pending patents and is a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. Dr. Purdon has won numerous awards, including the prestigious National Institutes of Health Director’s New Innovator Award.

Jay Pea is president of Save Standard Time, a nonprofit advocating for better alignment of clocks to the sun, for natural health and well-being. Mr Pea has testified in two dozen capitals across the US. His background includes professional software engineering and amateur astronomy. As a child in rural Iowa, his great-grandparents taught him to tell time from the sun’s position in the sky.

Dr. Irfan is an Associate Professor of Neurology at University of Minnesota, Program Director of Sleep Medicine Fellowship and Medical Director of Veterans Affairs Medical Center Minneapolis Sleep Services & Sleep Lead for VISN 23 within VA enterprise. She strongly believes in education being the essential tool to further the field of Healthcare and to improve trainee, individual & population sleep. She is involved in various teaching endeavors across the spectrum of learners at University, VAMC and affiliate academic institutions in her role as Site Director for Sleep Education, Program Director for Sleep Fellowship and has been recipient of Exceptional affiliate teaching award at University of Minnesota and prestigious Federal AMSUS award for Education and Training. She is also Medical Director of Sleep Services at Minneapolis VA where she has expanded comprehensive sleep services to out veterans. She has been involved with sleep education at national and international level through collaboration with AASM and other professional societies. As a part of educational enhancement, she has successfully employed various teaching practices such as fellows boot camp, interactive module for interdepartmental teaching, Sleep workshops and Tele-Sleep Education for international medical students. Her clinical interests include sleep disorders in neurological patients such as Parasomnias, Willis-Ekbom Disease, Hypersomnia, Sleep Related Movement & Sleep Related Disordered Breathing and collaboration in Telesleep to improve sleep care for all.

Melissa Byrne, DO, MPH, FASA grew up in Detroit and studied chemistry and biology at Kalamazoo College. She worked as a research assistant studying in-utero exposure to pesticides before earning her osteopathic degree from Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine. She also earned a master’s in public health from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr Byrne completed her anesthesiology residency and fellowship training in regional and ambulatory anesthesia at the University of Michigan. She served as faculty for 10 years as and Associate Program Director for the Core Anesthesiology Residency program at the University of Michigan prior to moving to her current role as Associate Professor and Director of Point of Care Ultrasound at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. Dr. Byrne is an expert in point of care ultrasound (POCUS) and teaches the technique nationally as a faculty member of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine. She is the author of a recent publication on POCUS in clinical practice and a contributing author on expert panel recommendations for POCUS education and training for regional anesthesiologists and pain physicians.

David is a sleep patient advocate and the founder and CEO of the Sleep Equity Project. His mission is to make healthy sleep accessible to everyone, regardless of where they live, what resources they have, or their gender or age. His work focuses on raising awareness, providing education, and developing programs to address sleep health disparities, primarily in Chicago. Some of the programs he has created include:
• A sleep education training program for community health workers
• A sleep disorder screening and referral program for returning citizens after incarceration in prison
• Collaborating with a safety net hospital to build sleep disorder treatment resources
• Teaching middle school students in Chicago about healthy sleep habits
He also participates as a stakeholder on multiple PCORI grants and also has participated as a PCORI reviewer. He currently serves on the AASM Foundation Community Award Committee as the Chair. In July 2024, David was appointed to the NHLBI’s Sleep Disorder Research Advisory Board for a 4-year appointment. David was fortunate to serve on the most recent AASM Hypopnea Scoring Rule Taskforce as the only patient representative in an effort to address the issue of low awareness among patients. In addition to having sleep apnea himself, he has multiple family members who have also been diagnosed and is passionate about the generational impact of sleep disorders on relationships and the quality of life. He also is interested in OSA issues around the lack of awareness around the impact of hypoxemia and gender differences in clinical presentations.

Anil Patel was born in London, graduated from University College London in 1991 and was appointed a Consultant Anaesthetist at The Royal National ENT & Eastman Dental Hospital, University College London Hospitals in 1999. Largest clinical experience of anaesthetising adult airway patients under general anaesthesia (> 6,000 procedures) in the UK, probably Europe and possibly the world. Invited speaker to over 300 National and International meetings in 38 countries, h-index of 30, 130+ peer reviewed publications, 27 book chapters and 7,000+ citations. DAS Professor of Anaesthesia & Airway Management in 2019. Co-Chair: World Airway Management Meeting (2015, 2019, 2025)