SLEEP AIDS: Michael Camp, marketing director for Opus Medical, discusses sleep aid devices with Jessica Richardson, lab coordinator for the company’s Memphis clinic. Opus also has clinics in Marion, Southaven and Tupelo. – PHOTO BY TOM WILEMON

Instead of relying solely on physician referrals, the sleep treatment company Opus Medical Management wants businesses to send fatigued employees to its clinics.

Logistics companies, casinos, hospitals and other employers that run 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week operations expose themselves to liability and lower productivity when their workers don’t get enough sleep, said Derek Denman, president of Opus Medical.

His company recently affiliated with Stoneham, Mass.-based Circadian Technologies Inc. to increase business with these round-the-clock operations. Although Opus has four clinics throughout the Mid-South, Denman said he needed Circadian’s name recognition and expertise.

“Circadian is the premier risk management company in the world,” Denman said. “Opus Medical is the first local company they’ve ever done business with here. They obviously like the way we have managed our company and grown our business. I think it is a good partnership. They’re first at what they do.”

Good fit

Circadian, which was founded in 1983 by a former Harvard Medical School professor, has offices in North America, Europe and Asia. It specializes in assisting round-the-clock operations with manpower management.

The company’s founder and chief executive officer, Dr. Martin Moore-Ede, said in a statement that Memphis’s strategic location, logistics hub and companies madet it a good fit for the company.

Circadian’s products and services include risk and cost assessment, education and training, shift scheduling, fatigue risk management, expert testimony, publications and reports, best practices and workplace management software.

The field of sleep medicine is often overlooked in the health care system, Denman said.

“If we wait on physicians to refer their patients, well, you’re going to have a lot of people unhealthy for a long time,” he said.

More than 70 million people in the United States have some type of sleep disorder, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Interrupted rhythms

Michael Camp, the marketing director for Opus, will be the point person for Circadian.

“Circadian has found that for a large percent of companies that are having problems with nocturnal workers – many of the workers have undiagnosed sleep problems,” Camp said. “People with sleep disorders – the most prevalent one is sleep apnea (in which sufferers stop breathing repeatedly while they sleep) – are susceptible to other problems like hypertension.”

Sleep apnea can be treated with special masks that provide extra oxygen to people while they are sleeping.

Other sleep disorders that Opus diagnoses and treats are insomnia, narcolepsy, snoring, restless leg syndrome and circadian rhythm disorders. Circadian rhythm is the natural cycle for being asleep and awake, and the disorder occurs when the cycle is repeatedly disrupted.

Narcolepsy is characterized by uncontrollable episodes of falling asleep during daytime hours. There is no cure for this disorder, but it can be treated with lifestyle changes and drug therapy, according to Opus Medical’s Web site, www.opusmed.com.

Comforting atmosphere

Opus Medical has labs in Memphis, Southaven, Marion, Ark., and Tupelo, Miss. The company employs more than 30 people.

Patients who go to the labs won’t be greeted with an examination table. The labs have comfortable beds in settings that look like hotel rooms or bedrooms.

“Our primary patient flow comes from cardiologists, internal medicine doctors and family practitioners,” Camp said. “There is another large market for us that are in 24/7 logistical operations.”

Circadian has done business with more than half the Fortune 500 companies, he said. This year Circadian had shift work seminars scheduled in Scotland, Ireland, Canada, England and the United States.

Dr. Moore-Ede became interested in sleep patterns when he was working as a surgical resident. Instead of going into clinical practice, he opted to pursue graduate studies in physiology at Harvard Medical School. He and his research team focused on biological clocks, sleep and alertness.

In 1983, he started Circadian and began applying knowledge gained from the research to help businesses after his book, “The Clocks that Time Us: Physiology of the Circadian Timing System,” was published a year earlier. The research led to companies exploring biocompatible shift scheduling. He is also the author of “The Twenty Four Hour Society: Understanding Human Limits in a World that Never Stops.”

Industries that Circadian has assisted include trucking companies, air freight, manufacturing, utilities and emergency services. The company claims that it has helped reduce absenteeism, turnover rates, workplace accidents and health care costs.