The Siesta Group, worldwide leader in measuring sleep, wakefulness and brain activity for clinical trials and research, celebrates its 10-year anniversary in 2012

Vienna, July 12, 2012 - The Siesta Group is celebrating its 10-year anniversary in 2012. On June 21, 2012, they held an anniversary event in Vienna, Austria, which many of their customers, partners and friends attended. Highlights of the event were the Introduction of Georg Dorffner, CEO of The Siesta Group and the keynote lectures of Vladimir Svetnik, Director, Biometrics Research, Merck & Company and Bernd Saletu, Professor of Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine, Rudolfinerhaus Vienna.

The Siesta Group is a comprehensive service provider supporting the measurement of sleep, wakefulness and brain activity in clinical trials and research. Their services include consulting, data analysis, data quality control and device rental. Where did they start from? How did they develop to what they are today?
Fifteen years ago sixteen partners from seven countries joined in the EU research project SIESTA, coordinated by the Austrian Research Institute for Artifical Intelligence (OFAI), and created the largest normative database of healthy sleep. For the first time it became possible to objectively describe anomalies in a patient’s sleep pattern taking age and gender into account.
Five years later members of the SIESTA research project founded The Siesta Group with the aim of further developing the results of the EU project and making them available to sleep physicians and researchers around the world.
In 2004 the launch of Somnolyzer 24x7 set a milestone in sleep medicine. This breakthrough software converts raw sleep data into a standardized sleep profile objectively and reliably, thus offering sleep specialists a sound basis for diagnosis. For the first time Pharmaceutical companies could use computer supported sleep analysis in clinical trials and benefit from the reliability of scorings and thus low variability of end-point data.
In late 2004 Austrian venture capitalists Gamma Capital Partners and Univenture got on board with a significant investment into The Siesta Group, which served to further reinforce their strive to high-quality products and services.
In 2005 The Siesta Group enhanced the SOMNOLYZER 24x7 scoring by offering respiratory, PLM and arousal detection and analysis. One year later the clinical trial services grew rapidly. Among others, The Siesta Group managed and scored two large multi-site trials in insomnia and narcolepsy.
In 2007 The Siesta Group opened its North American subsidiary located in Salisbury, MD, to help support the US and Canadian sleep lab markets. The Siesta Group was the first to offer sleep scoring according to the new AASM (American Academy of Sleep Medicine) guidelines published in May of that year. SOMNOLYZER 24x7 was ranked as the top computer supported PSG scoring solution by the AASM.
In 2009 The Siesta Group added preclinical trial services to their service portfolio by offering sleep staging, spectral analysis and statistical analysis in rodent EEG in preclinical drug trials.
In 2010 Philips-Respironics purchases Somnolyzer 24x7 and takes over the clinical/diagnostic business for sleep labs all over the world.
Last year The Siesta Group and the clinical trial division of Philips-Respironics joined forces in expanding their portfolio to supporting the measurement of sleep, wake and activity, encompassing PSG, EEG and actigraphy.
On June 21, 2012, The Siesta Group held an anniversary event in Vienna, Austria, which many of their customers, partners and friends attended. They would like to give them, and everyone who couldn’t participate in the event, the chance to view the keynote lectures and download the presentations on their website.

Introduction: 10 Years of The Siesta Group - Past, Present and Future
Georg Dorffner, CEO, The Siesta Group
http://www.thesiestagroup.com/publications/presentations#GD

Keynote Lecture: Measuring Sleep in Clinical Trials - Traditional and Innovative Looks at Sleep Architecture
Vladimir Svetnik, Director, Biometrics Research, Merck & Company
http://www.thesiestagroup.com/publications/presentations#VS

Keynote Lecture: Pharmaco-EEG and the Key-Lock-Principle in Drug Research
Bernd Saletu, Professor of Psychiatry and Sleep Medicine, Rudolfinerhaus Vienna
http://www.thesiestagroup.com/publications/presentations#BS

The Siesta Group is the worldwide competence center for analysing sleep, daytime vigilance (wakefulness) and brain activity in clinical trials and research. It is based on a unique cooperation of leading European sleep scientists and professionals, who make their know-how and expertise accessible to customers all over the world, around the clock. With its network of 50 specialists comprising employees, scientific and business consultants and top European scientists as shareholders, The Siesta Group provides scientific knowledge and state-of-the-art technologies in the field of sleep, vigilance and brain activity analysis to its customers. The pharmaceutical industry, contract research organisations, corporations, care and well-being institutions all benefit from a comprehensive view on all sleep, wakefulness and brain activity related issues.
For further information, please visit www.thesiestagroup.com

The Siesta Group
Mag. Katharina Glasner, Marketing and Administration
katharina.glasner@thesiestagroup.com
www.thesiestagroup.com
Tel: +43 1 955 12 13
Fax: +43 1 955 12 13 50

This release was published on openPR.