Research Interests

Sleep & Pain

 Dr. Saconi’s program of research addresses sleep and chronic pain symptom management in adults. His long-term goal is to address non-pharmacological opportunities to improve chronic pain symptoms (or outcomes) by treating co-occurring sleep disorders. Dr. Saconi’s current work is characterizing chronic pain in veterans and civilians newly diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and examining differences in patient-reported sleep outcomes in veterans with OSA and with or without pre-existing chronic pain. By providing a more complete understanding of the magnitude and impact of comorbid OSA and chronic pain, these results will be foundational for subsequent assessment of the influence of standard non-pharmacologic OSA treatment (e.g., positive airway pressure [PAP]) on sleep and pain outcomes in adults with comorbid OSA and chronic pain.

Obstructive Sleep Apnea 

 His research in sleep has also led to a better understanding of factors associated with use of PAP therapy, the first-line recommended treatment for moderate-severe OSA. Dr. Saconi recently received funding from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine to linguistically and culturally adapt an efficacious tele-management intervention for Spanish-speaking Hispanic adults with OSA. This work will also assess the feasibility, usability and 6-month effectiveness of the adapted intervention. “We aim to provide equitable access to quality long-term PAP management that may mitigate known PAP adherence disparities for minority adults with OSA”.

Other research interests include applied biostatistics and advancing sleep education of health care professionals.