Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation Blog

RLS Foundation Certifies UPMC as Quality Care Center

The Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) Foundation announces it has certified the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) in Pittsburgh as an RLS Quality Care Center.

As an RLS Quality Care Center, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is certified to provide expert care to patients who have restless legs syndrome, a chronic neurological sleep disorder.

An estimated 2% to 3% of adults need daily clinical treatment for RLS, a chronic neurological disease that disrupts sleep and can have a devastating impact on quality of life. As an RLS Quality Care Center, UPMC will serve as a destination for RLS patients who need expert medical care.

“We are honored to receive this designation,” says Avinash Aggarwal, MD, director of the Quality Care Center at UPMC. “Our goal is to provide the best and most comprehensive care for patients who have RLS. Designation as an RLS Quality Care Center certifies that we adhere to the highest standards of care and will identify us as having expertise to treat RLS at all levels of severity. We are particularly proud to be the first in our region to receive this designation.”

UPMC joins a network of 11 institutions in the US and Europe that are certified by the RLS Foundation as Quality Care Centers. Through this program, the Foundation aims to improve diagnosis and treatment of the disease worldwide.

RLS Quality Care Centers:

• Provide expert care to RLS patients
• Serve as information and referral resources for regional support groups and for healthcare providers who treat patients with RLS
• Support patients and families through educational offerings and literature
• Share information with other centers to improve clinical best practices
• Partner with the RLS Foundation on quality improvement projects to raise the standard of care for RLS patients everywhere

“We are pleased to welcome UPMC into the Quality Care Center network,” says RLS Foundation Executive Director Karla Dzienkowski. “People with moderate to severe RLS face many challenges in managing their symptoms. Having access to healthcare providers who are highly skilled and experienced in treating RLS is essential for patients to get adequate treatment and improve their quality of life.” Dzienkowski adds, “Our goal is to help RLS patients find healthcare providers with expertise in disease management at a Quality Care Center. We look forward to our work in partnership with UPMC to advance the quality of care for RLS patients.”

Other certified RLS Quality Care Centers are:

• Johns Hopkins Center for Restless Legs Syndrome
• Mayo Clinic Center for Sleep Medicine
• Houston Methodist Neurological Institute
• Stanford Sleep Medicine Center
• Emory Sleep Center
• Yale Center for Restless Legs Syndrome
• Vanderbilt University Medical Center
• Scripps Clinic Viterbi Family Sleep Center
• Neurocenter of Southern Switzerland
• Innsbruck Medical University

To learn more about the RLS Quality Care Center Program, visit www.rls.org/quality-care-program.

RLS Foundation Funded Opioid Registry Finds COVID-19 Effect

The RLS Foundation is pleased to announce the publication of the article “Restless Legs Syndrome Severity in the National RLS Opioid Registry During the COVID-19 Pandemic” in the online January 2022 edition of Sleep Medicine.

The National Opioid Registry, funded by the RLS Foundation, is a longitudinal study to evaluate the use of an opioid medication in the treatment of refractory RLS.

The first of its kind, the study evaluates the impact of COVID-19 on RLS severity in this population. An increase in RLS symptom severity was found in this group during the early stages of the pandemic. The study highlights the need for clinicians to monitor and manage changes in patients' RLS symptoms during times of uncertainty with global impacts.

Free access to the article with no signup or registration required is available until March 26, 2022 here:

https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1eXMt4y2Nr15Bu