SUMMARY
The clinical and research interests of Melissa C. Lipford, M.D., involve the cross section of sleep medicine and neurology. She researches refractory restless legs syndrome, hypersomnolence, rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder, and sleep conditions in people with cerebrovascular disease.
Focus areas
- Restless legs syndrome. Dr. Lipford's research on restless legs syndrome includes describing augmentation in patients receiving long-term dopamine agonist therapy. She also is leading a clinical trial using surface electrical stimulation and exploring the development of de novo restless legs symptoms following opiate exposure.
- Hypersomnolence. Dr. Lipford's research on hypersomnolence includes the use of large data analytics and natural language processing algorithms to characterize demographics, comorbidities, medicine use and response, and side effects in a large cohort of participants with narcolepsy.
- Sleep and cerebrovascular illness. Dr. Lipford's studies of sleep and cerebrovascular illness include evaluation of stroke mechanisms in people with and without sleep-disordered breathing.
- Narcolepsy. Dr. Lipford's research team understands the challenges people with narcolepsy face over their lifespans. There are often significant delays from the onset of symptoms to obtaining a diagnosis. Then there may be further delays in determining an optimized care plan. Dr. Lipford works with the Mayo Clinic Center for Sleep Medicine to create innovative and more convenient solutions to diagnose narcolepsy faster and more accurately.
Dr. Lipford aims to generate tailored treatment plans that focus on improving symptoms and quality of life and minimizing side effects. She also aims to understand how comorbidities such as pain and mood disorders impact the symptoms of narcolepsy and patients' responses to medicines. Dr. Lipford hopes her research will translate into rapid and direct improvements in the care of people with narcolepsy.
Significance to patient care
Advancing research in the relationship between sleep and neurological conditions is vital. Dr. Lipford's work helps uncover how illnesses happen, identifies risk factors, aids early diagnosis and helps improve treatment plans.
Professional highlights
- Institutional Review Board, Mayo Clinic:
- Co-chair, 2022-present.
- Member, Executive Committee, 2020-present.
- Mayo Clinic Center for Sleep Medicine:
- Associate director for research, 2021-present.
- Chair, Research Coordinating Committee, 2020-present.
- Voting member, Software as a Medical Device Review Board, Mayo Clinic, 2021-present.