Tuesday November 29th, 2016 at 2:30 p.m. Dr. Azadeh Yadollahi, Scientist at SleepdB Laboratory and Assistant Professor at University of Toronto, will be presenting “Developing Wearable Technologies for improved management of sleep-related breathing disorders”.
Speaker: Dr. Azadeh Yadollahi
Scientist, SleepdB Laboratory, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute
Assistant Professor, Biomaterial & Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto
Adjunct Faculty, Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Manitoba
Day & Time: Tuesday, November 29th, 2016
2:30 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
Location: Room ENG-460
245 Church Street, Toronto, ON
Ryerson University
Organizer: IEEE Signal Processing Chapter Toronto Section
Contact: Mehrnaz Shokrollahi
Abstract: Over four million Canadians live with a chronic respiratory disease such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or obstructive sleep apnea (OSA)—all of which are associated with high morbidity. In Canada, 6.5% of total health care costs are related to these disorders, amounting to $5.7B in direct and $6.72B in indirect costs per year. Moreover, the overlap between asthma, COPD, and OSA is common, is clinically important, worsens quality of life, and is associated with greater morbidity and mortality more than the sum of the contributing disorders. A feature common to chronic respiratory diseases is that their symptoms, eg. shortness of breath, worsen during sleep. Most emergency visits and deaths related to asthma and COPD occur during the night. However, our understanding of the mechanisms of respiratory disorders exacerbation at night is limited; which consequently challenges our ability to manage these disorders. One of the main barriers to determine the underlying pathophysiology of sleep-related respiratory disorders is that the available technologies to perform studies are expensive, invasive, and confound normal breathing and sleep patterns. Therefore, the results may not be applicable to a wide range of people or over a long period of time to evaluate treatments and interventions. Therefore, the mechanistic link between sleep and respiratory disease, particularly the role of night-time fluid redistribution, is not well understood. To address this gap, my team is developing novel technologies to monitor respiratory related physiological signals during sleep, as well and technologies to non-invasively assess tissue composition, and its role on the pathophysiology of sleep related breathing disorders.
Biography: Dr. Azadeh Yadollahi is a Scientist at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute – University Health Network, where she leads the SleepdB laboratory. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Biomaterial and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto and Adjunct Faculty Member in the Graduate Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Manitoba. Her research aims to determine the pathophysiology of sleep-related breathing disorders and to develop novel technologies for improved management of these disorders. She is particularly interested in developing innovative technologies for monitoring of physiological signals at home and implementing personalized treatments for older populations with chronic sleep-related respiratory diseases. To date, Dr. Yadollahi has authored and co-authored more than 30 peer-reviewed publications, had more than 60 presentations at national and international conferences, and been invited 26 times to give presentations on her research at prominent national and international academic institutions. Her research is supported by grants from the Canada Foundation for Innovation, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Canadian Respiratory Research Network, and Ontario Centres of Excellence, among others. In the past 10 years, Dr. Yadollahi has been instrumental in developing new wearable technologies for improved diagnosis and treatment of breathing disorders during sleep. At Toronto Rehab, Dr. Yadollahi is leading SleepdB, a Sound-proof laboratory to examine sleep-disordered Breathing. SleepdB is the first laboratory in the world dedicated to understanding the mechanisms of airway narrowing during sleep and to developing acoustic technologies to improve sleep-related respiratory disorders. This laboratory will also serve as a hub for knowledge translation and exchange between researchers and clinicians to advance clinically relevant research and implement cutting-edge assessments and treatments for breathing disorders.