David E McCarty MD FAASM attended medical school at Duke University, and completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine in Boston, at Massachusetts General Hospital. He began his career practicing primary care, but after a handful of years in practice, followed his own white rabbit into a whole new world called Sleep Medicine.
Dr. McCarty learned the art from the great Dr. Andrew Chesson (world-class physician, and past president of the AASM). He spent two years with with Dr. Chesson at LSU Shreveport as a part-time, unpaid fellow.
After completing training, Dr. McCarty joined the program at LSU as faculty to help Dr. Chesson turn his apprenticeship-style training program into a fully-fledged and ACGME-accredited fellowship. He became the program’s second director when Dr. Chesson retired.
While at LSU, Dr. McCarty won some teaching awards, published a few papers, and it’s also where he developed the Five Finger Approach, which has remained the cornerstone of my teaching about patient-centered problem-solving, to this day, and is featured as the pinnacle for orienteering around the Isle.
In 2015, Dr. McCarty moved to Boulder to join the new Colorado Sleep Institute as its first medical director. CSI was founded as an innovative clinical model, developed to bring a comprehensive philosophy to the practice of Sleep Medicine, placing clinical care, diagnostics and treatment options (including PAP therapy and oral appliance therapy) all under the same roof.
Dr. McCarty says that this environment was better than any textbook ever written.
It was precisely this access he had—access to long-term follow up within this comprehensive structure—that allowed him to develop the patient-centered teaching curriculum that would ultimately become Empowered Sleep Apnea.
In addition to patient care and academic endeavors, Dr. McCarty has had plenty of experience as a public speaker at regional and national meetings throughout my career.
Dr. McCarty retired from the practice of clinical medicine in 2021, to devote his energy to patient education.
For his efforts in cartooning, he says this: "I have only myself to blame."
Ellen Stothard, PhD earned her doctorate in Integrative Physiology and Neuroscience from University of Colorado Boulder. Working in the Sleep and Chronobiology Laboratory with her mentor, Dr. Kenneth P Wright, Jr., Dr. Stothard worked on the now-famous “Camping Studies” project. This important work on circadian biology has the unusual yet glorious distinction of garnering mention on Saturday Night Live’s “Weekend Update!” HUZZAH!
After the Camping Studies hullaballoo made her famous, Dr. Stothard’s experience fielding interviews with news organizations, local and worldwide, sparked an ongoing interest in science communication, making her a natural Podcast host!
Prior to this, her many lives have included teaching High School English in France, and administering research grants at University of Colorado, Boulder.
Passionate about bringing research out of the laboratory and into the real world, Dr. Stothard is an engaging and prolific public speaker, speaking regularly in the community on issues pertinent to Sleep Health.
Dr. Stothard is currently the Research and Development Director at Colorado Sleep Institute.