Dr Francois Abel

Dr Francois Abel is the lead for the Paediatric Sleep Service at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) since 2012, having trained in Paediatric Respiratory Medicine and Sleep in the Catholic University of Louvain in Brussels, Sydney Children’s Hospital at Westmead and at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. He also has a postgraduate certificate in Paediatric Sleep Sciences from the University of Western Australia. Dr Abel has a wealth of clinical experience in complex sleep related breathing disorders in complex conditions (craniofacial, metabolic, neuromuscular, genetics) and chronic ventilation disorders for which he provides expertise and advice for the wider multidisciplinary team in Great Ormond Street and beyond. Dr Abel was the co-chair the British Paediatric Sleep Society (BPSS) following its creation in 2015 with aim to promote awareness of paediatric sleep issues in the UK. He is still involved in its ongoing running. Following its creation, the BPSS is now recognised as a special interest group with the Royal College of Paediatric And Child Health. Dr Abel has been invited faculty at national and international meetings to present on paediatric sleep and ventilation with an emphasis on complex patients such as neuromuscular or craniofacial patients. These include the European Respiratory Society, the International Paediatric Sleep Association and the International Conference on Paediatric Non-Invasive Ventilation. He has also been involved in multiple taskforces within the European Respiratory Society including on paediatric OSA and paediatric non-invasive ventilation but also leading the taskforce on paediatric central apnoea. His publications cover diverse topics such as changing respiratory expectations in the management of spinal muscular atrophy, new scoring system for respiratory outcomes in spinal muscular atrophy, selenoprotein-related myopathy, hypoventilation in Prader-Willi patients, sleep disordered breathing in craniofacial disorders and a systematic review on paediatric obstructive sleep apnoea amongst others. His research priorities focus on paediatric particular sleep-related breathing and ventilation disorders particularly in complex populations such as craniofacial or neuromuscular cohorts including improved specific methods of diagnosis/monitoring and outcomes. The research is also focused on the increasing cohort of patients requiring long- term ventilation.

I am a Respiratory paediatrician with a special interest in Sleep related respiratory disorders and non invasive ventilation. This special interest covers not only the classic obstructive sleep apnoea but also all the neuromuscular patient with respiratory weakness in sleep, abnormality of ventilation control during sleep such as brain malformation or congenital central hypoventilation syndromes or generally all the conditions where breathing is made vulnerable by sleeping. I follow a big cohort of patients requiring non invasive ventilation (i.e CPAP or BiPAP via mask but also via tracheostomy). As part of my general paediatric respiratory role, I also have extensive expertise in all paediatric respiratory conditions including complex and rare lung disease. These include congenital lung malformations, chronic lung disease, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, cystic fibrosis, asthma, primary ciliary dyskinesia and interstitial lung diseases.