Ep.86, No More Dead Ends: Building the Collaborative Airway Healthcare Team, Dr. Pedro Cuartas

In this episode of the ASAP Pathway Podcast, Dr. Stacy sits down with Dr. Pedro Cuartas, founder of the Collaborative Airway Management Summit (CAMS) and Clinical Director of South Louisiana Dental Sleep Medicine, for a conversation about what may be one of the biggest missing pieces in airway healthcare: collaboration.

With so many patients still undiagnosed, how do we actually make a meaningful dent?

The answer, he believes, isn't simply more education. Knowledge without implementation doesn't change patient care.Dr. Stacy and Pedro discuss why physicians, dentists, ENTs, nurse practitioners, PAs, sleep specialists and other healthcare providers need practical systems for screening, referral, treatment and—perhaps most importantly—communication.They also explore why sleep apnea treatment doesn't have to be an either/or decision. CPAP, oral appliance therapy, Inspire, weight management, positional therapy, lifestyle changes and other approaches may sometimes work together as combination therapy, creating a treatment plan built around the individual patient rather than forcing the patient into a single treatment box.The conversation expands into women and children who may be missed by traditional sleep apnea metrics, hormonal changes and midlife sleep, pediatric airway intervention, weight and craniofacial risk factors, and the importance of looking backward in a patient's story to understand how they arrived at their current health.

Pedro also shares the vision behind CAMS: bringing healthcare providers from different disciplines into the same room, allowing them to learn from one another, understand each other's treatment options and ultimately return home equipped to build collaborative airway “ecosystems” in their own communities.

Because the goal isn't simply to diagnose sleep apnea.It's to make sure the patient has somewhere to go next.

The goal isn’t for one profession to “own” the airway. The goal is to build an ecosystem around the patient where providers communicate. Because when healthcare truly becomes collaborative, the dead ends no longer have to exist.

CAMS FB Page

CAMS Summit Registration

Dr Pedro Cuartas LinkedIn

Dr Pedro Cuartas’ Practice

CHAPTERS: 📖

00:00 Welcome to ASAP Pathway