In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as a potential transformative force in healthcare. Within sleep medicine, AI technologies are being developed to assist in the detection and classification of sleep disorders such as obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). These technologies often aim to complement or replace traditional diagnostic methods like polysomnography (PSG), which remains the gold standard for sleep assessment. This may be especially beneficial in Regional or Rural areas where there is limited access to PSG-equipped facilities and/or qualified Sleep Technicians. 

For this assessment, you are required to critically evaluate the use of generative AI in the diagnosis of sleep disorders, with a particular focus on the 2025 study by Attia et al. (available on the e-Reading list), which introduces and clinically validates the SleepAI system. This system utilises data from oximetry and photoplethysmography (PPG) to diagnose OSA and perform sleep staging rather than utilising traditional PSG recordings.

Your task is to write a 1500–2000-word critical essay that demonstrates your understanding of normal sleep physiology, circadian rhythms, and polysomnographic techniques with a critical analysis of the SleepAI system. You will assess how well this AI-based approach aligns with established physiological principles and diagnostic standards, and consider its potential implications for clinical practice, including any ethical considerations of using AI in this domain.

In developing your assignment, you should consult peer-reviewed journal articles. Extensive use of non-peer-reviewed sources of information is strongly discouraged.

Formatting:
Your response should be submitted in essay format.

• No cover page is required. Student name and student number are to be included in the footer.
• Double line spacing must be used.
• Either Arial, Times New Roman or Calibri (12-point) should be used.

Level of GenAI use allowed: 

• Level 3: You may use Al to assist with specific tasks such as drafting text, refining and evaluating your work. You must critically evaluate and modify any AI-generated content you use.

Your use of Generative AI must be clearly outlined in an appendix, including the prompt used and Generative AI response. Failure to include an appendix may result in an academic integrity investigation. 

This task will assess your understanding of: 

• Normal sleep physiology and circadian rhythms.
• The use of polysomnography in determining sleep patterns. 
• The use of polysomnography for sleep staging and diagnosis of sleep disorders. 
• The ethical use of artificial intelligence. 

A detailed marking rubric is available on the Moodle site. 

In your role as a healthcare provider, you will be potentially required to work with patients with a variety of sleep disorders. As such, knowledge of signs, symptoms, risk factors, pathophysiology, diagnostic techniques and potential treatment of sleep disorders is required. In a clinical setting, you will also be working in a team environment with other clinical measurement scientists and health professionals.

For this task, each group will be provided a clinical case study. Working as a group, you will need to use the information provided in the case study to determine what sleep disorder your patient is potentially suffering from. Each group will prepare and record a short 10-minute presentation discussing their case study and the sleep disorder. The presentation should include patient information such as demographics, signs and symptoms, and information on the pathophysiology of the sleep disorder and potential treatment options.

This assessment is designed to strengthen your knowledge of sleep disorders as discussed in the second half of the term and to give you experience in presenting case studies for clinical meetings or conference presentations.

Students will be randomly designated into groups by the unit coordinator. Students will be allocated into groups in week 3.

This task has three components: an individual component (part A), a group work component (part B) and a self-and peer assessment (part C).

Part A: Individual Work (35% of available marks)

Each team member will individually prepare a brief report (1000 words +/- 10%) on the sleep disorder that relates to their case study. This may include sections such as:

• Risk factors (if any) for the sleep disorder
• Signs and symptoms a patient may present with
• Pathophysiology of the sleep disorder
• Diagnostic techniques used for the investigation of the sleep disorder
• Treatment options

This report will then be used to aid in the development of your group's case study presentation. In developing your assignment, you should consult peer-reviewed journal articles. Extensive use of non-peer-reviewed sources of information is strongly discouraged.

Part B: Group Work (60% of available marks)

Each group is to work collaboratively to develop and record a 10-minute presentation discussing their case study and the related sleep disorder. The presentation should outline the patient's presentation, signs and symptoms, and diagnostic criteria used to determine the patient's sleep disorder.

The final slide of the presentation should outline of how each group member contributed to the development of the presentation. Each group will be required to upload a link to the recording of their presentation and a copy of the presentation slides. More information on how to do this will be available on the Moodle site.

Part C: Self and Peer Review (5% of available marks)

To assess each member's contribution to the group work, you will need to complete a self and peer assessment activity after submitting your assessment item. In confidence, each person within a group will score themselves and other team members for their degree of contribution to the group work activity. The self and peer assessment (SPA) activity will open Monday of week 10 and must be completed by the assessment due date.

Level of GenAI use allowed: 

Level 3: You may use Al to assist with specific tasks such as drafting text, refining and evaluating your work. You must critically evaluate and modify any AI-generated content you use.
Your use of Generative AI must be clearly outlined in an appendix, including the prompt used and Generative AI response. Failure to include an appendix may result in an academic integrity investigation. 

 Please note that the 72-hr grace period is NOT permitted for this assessment task. 

This task will assess your understanding of: 

• Causes, clinical features and treatment of common sleep disorders. 
• Symptoms, monitoring and evaluation of common sleep disorders.
• Discuss and differentiate sleep related movement disorders.
• Evaluating clinical data to evaluate a patient's sleep. 

A detailed marking rubric is available on the Moodle site. 

If your assessment item is submitted after the due date/time without an approved extension, it will be penalised 5% per calendar day that it is overdue.

The end-of-term online test will assess all content covered throughout the term. The test will be available on Moodle for 12 hours only. You must complete the end-of-term online test during this time.

You will have 1 attempt at the test. Once you start your attempt, you will have 3 hours in which to complete the test. The test will comprise of multiple different question types ranging from multiple choice to written responses, ranging from short answer question to essay questions.

The test will open at 9 AM AEST on Friday of week 12 and close at 9 PM Friday of Week 12.

Level of GenAI use allowed: 

Level 1: You must not use Al at any point during the assessment. You must demonstrate your core skills and knowledge.

 Please note that the 72-hr grace period is NOT permitted for this assessment task. 

Each question will be allocated a specific number of marks.

Assessment criteria will be based on:

• Knowledge of theory
• Application of foundational concepts
• Correct use of terminology