Overview
About the Sleep Center
Dedicated care for sleep disorders first began at VCU Health in 1984. The American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM), the preeminent professional society for the medical subspecialty of sleep and circadian rhythms medicine in the U.S., was established in 1975, putting VCU Health at the forefront of clinical sleep disorders diagnosis and management since the medical specialty’s early stages.
Clinical Care
The Center for Sleep Medicine, fully accredited by the AASM, sees an average of more than 20,000 combined visits per year for both sleep testing and office visits.
The importance of healthy and adequate sleep is readily apparent and increasingly supported by emerging research from multiple medical disciplines. For instance, obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), the second most common sleep disorder is, according to the National Sleep Foundation, estimated to be as common as type 2 diabetes. Yet many patients with OSA and other clinically significant sleep disorders remain undiagnosed and, therefore, untreated.
Access to full-spectrum sleep disorders care remains limited in many regions of the U.S., and indeed the world, but the VCU Health Center for Sleep Medicine stands at the ready, along with our subspecialty colleagues, to provide optimized care to the region and Commonwealth of Virginia.
We evaluate and treat the entire spectrum of sleep disorders and provide the highest level of sleep medicine testing services in the Central Virginia region. Our services are largely unavailable at most other sleep centers, and we provide referral to additional sleep-related services via liaison with a multitude of other related medical, mental health and dental subspecialties, which speaks volumes to the multidisciplinary nature of sleep disorders medicine. Sleep medicine is team medicine.
Faculty & Staff
Division of Sleep Medicine faculty and staff

Maha Alattar, M.D.
Assistant Professor and Medical Director, Sleep Center

Maha Alattar, M.D.
Assistant Professor and Medical Director, Sleep Center
Department of Neurology
Divisions: Adult Neurology, Sleep Medicine, Vascular and Critical Care Neurology
Phone: (804) 828-7929
Email: Maha.Alattar@vcuhealth.org

Samuel A. Taylor Jr., M.D.
Assistant Professor

Samuel A. Taylor Jr., M.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Neurology
Divisions: Adult Neurology, Sleep Medicine
Phone: (804) 828-7929
Email: samuel.taylor@vcuhealth.org

Michele L. Nelson, FNP
Nurse Practitioner

Michele L. Nelson, FNP
Nurse Practitioner
Department of Neurology, Sleep Medicine
Division of Sleep Medicine
Phone: (804) 828-7929
Email: michele.nelson@vcuhealth.org

Kristin L. Phipps, AGACNP
Nurse Practitioner

Kristin L. Phipps, AGACNP
Nurse Practitioner
Department of Neurology, Sleep Medicine
Division of Sleep Medicine
Phone: (804) 828-7929
Email: Kristin.Phipps@vcuhealth.org

Subhendu Rath, M.D.
Assistant Professor

Subhendu Rath, M.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Neurology
Division of Epilepsy
Phone: (804) 828-7929
Email: Subhendu.Rath@vcuhealth.org
Contact
Contact the Center for Sleep Medicine
VCU Center for Sleep Medicine
9105 Stony Point Drive
Richmond, Virginia 23235
(next to our Stony Point 9109 building)
Virginia Commonwealth University
Department of Neurology
P.O. Box 980599
Richmond, Virginia 23298-0599