Professor Ron Grunstein
- NHMRC Practitioner Fellow
- Head of the Sleep Investigation Unit, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital
- Head of the Sleep and Circadian Research Group, Woolcock Institute of Medical Research
- Professor of Sleep Medicine (Conjoint), University of Sydney
- Chief Investigator, CIRUS (NHMRC Centre of Clinical Research Excellence in Interdisciplinary Sleep Health)
- Chief Investigator, Australasian Sleep Trials Network
- Current President, World Sleep Federation
Current research interests
Professor Grunstein is a consultant physician who heads an internationally recognised clinical sleep research team at the Woolcock Institute. He has had a longstanding interest in the health consequences of sleep apnea and sleep disorders. He is focused on providing evidence-based research to facilitate improvements in sleep disorder diagnosis, treatment options and influence policy on work safety and quality of life issues in the community.
Major research achievements
Professor Grunstein has been recognized for his work on the links between obesity, endocrine and metabolic disorders and sleep apnea, and for translating early research at the University of Sydney and RPAH on CPAP treatment into the gold standard therapy for sleep apnea. He has received over $10 million in competitive grant funding to support his leading research since 2004. Professor Grunstein was involved in the clinical development of nasal CPAP treatment of sleep apnea at the University of Sydney since 1983 and has served in an advisory capacity to a number of companies involved in sleep technology and treatment of sleep disorders. He was awarded an Industrial Research and Development Grant to develop automatically titrating CPAP in 1991 and more recently has focused on novel diagnostic and monitoring devices for sleep apnea resulting in several patents.
CCRE role & involvement in CCRE projects
Professor Grunstein will play a lead executive role in the Centre for Integrated Research and Understanding of Sleep (CIRUS). His research role in CIRUS will relate to neurobiological and epidemiological aspects of sleep research. He will also assist in research translation efforts in road safety and shiftwork to ensure appropriate risk identification of drivers and behaviours. He will bear primary responsibility for mentoring respiratory trained physicians and all research trainees.
Publications
Professor Grunstein has published over 160 peer reviewed articles and 34 book chapters in sleep medicine including chapters on CPAP and Endocrine Disorders and Sleep for the past 5 editions of the main text book in the field, Principles and Practice of Sleep Medicine. Professor Grunstein is an associate editor of Sleep, Sleep Medicine Reviews and Sleep Medicine and is on the editorial board of Journal of Sleep Research.
