Introduction
The clinical characterisation and description of the obstructive sleep apnoea–hypopnoea syndrome (OSAHS) and related syndromes were mainly revealed by several epidemiological studies conducted over the past fifty years. These highly prevalent syndromes affect about 9% of middle-aged men and 4% of women. These syndromes have serious medical and social consequences, such as cardiovascular or metabolic diseases, and even premature death. Consequently, respiratory sleep medicine (RSM) evolved and has progressed rapidly within the sleep medicine field over recent decades. New diagnostic and therapeutic techniques have appeared in response to an increasing number of patients and clinical interventions. The research progressed to focus not only on the clinical and pathophysiological but also the genetic and molecular aspects of these syndromes [1–6]. Nevertheless, the literature in the field does not provide any clear consensus on diagnostic classification and assessment. No harmonised standards of training exist across Europe for respiratory sleep medicine. The European Respiratory Society (ERS) provided external and postgraduate courses but the requirements and expectations in the field were not being fulfilled. There was a need for a project supporting both the teaching and certification.
For this reason, ERS supported an application for a Sleep Harmonised Education in Respiratory Medicine for European Specialists (HERMES) Task Force project which aimed at establishing common standards in respiratory sleep training and education, in an adaptable framework which can be extended across Europe. HERMES was a project established in 2005 to provide documentation for the training and certification of adult respiratory specialists. Since 2005, the HERMES framework has been adapted for projects including paediatric respiratory medicine, critical care medicine and the development of the European Spirometry Driving Licence (spirometry).
Within the HERMES model, a process of establishing consensus standards for training largely follows four key phases (fig. 1). In line with this …
