Dr Hima Vedam

Dr Hima Vedam is a Senior Staff Specialist in the Respiratory and Sleep Medicine department in Liverpool Hospital. Since she has been working in South West Sydney she has successfully established sleep and respiratory failure services at Liverpool Hospital. Dr Vedam is a dedicated researcher with a number of peer-reviewed publications and recipient of a post-doctoral research grant.

As the Co-director of The Respiratory, Sleep, Environmental was and Occupational Health Clinical Academic Group of Maridulu Budyari Gumal, the Sydney Partnership for Health, Education, Research and Enterprise ((SPHERE), Dr Vedam plays a key role in coordinating the respiratory research effort amongst its members, including the current COVID-19 research efforts.  
 

Dr Vedam’s research has focussed on the  assessment and management  of obstructive sleep apnoea and hypercapnic respiratory failure.  
Her  doctoral thesis examined the links between OSA and cardiovascular disease. Subsequently Dr Vedam received a post doctoral Pfizer Australia Cardio Vascular Lipid Research Grant to extend on her doctoral work. Dr Vedam more recently has been involved in research assessing screening tools for the diagnosis of OSA and has been  the lead investigator in projects assessing the utility of awake supine oximetry as a screening tool for severe sleep disordered breathing in super- obese patients, and investigating the impact different oximetry software programs have on the diagnostic utility of oximetry alone compared with full polysomnography. As the recipient of the South West SYDNEY Local Health District Mid Career Grant (2017-2019) Dr Vedam focussed on the impact of obstructive sleep apnoea on post-operative cardiorespiratory outcomes.  More recently Dr Vedam has been involved in the assessment and management of obstructive sleep apnoea in pregnant women.

As a member of three Enable NSW Expert Clinical Committees, Dr Vedam has demonstrated expertise in translating the findings of research studies into practical clinical guidelines. In particular Dr Vedam has recently been involved with updating prescription guidelines for the provision of domiciliary oxygen, CPAP and nocturnal ventilation devices (bi-level and ASV devices) in 2014. Dr Vedam is also a member of the Neuromuscular and Neurodegenerative Diseases Working Party.

In 2015 Dr Vedam was also been instrumental in establishing the new Respiratory, Sleep and Environmental Academic Unit at Liverpool Hospital. 

Qualifications: 

MBBS, FRACP, PhD

Research Interests

Obstructive sleep apnoea, Respiratory Failure, Noninvasive ventilation, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease