[1] ABSM shares office space and at least some staff with the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) in Darien, Illinois, USA; the two organizations are closely related and serve basically the same constituency.
Therefore, the ABSM has put a disclaimer in its website cautioning everyone who has passed the exams to only practice medicine within the legal limits allowed.
The first persons awarded the RST were Registered Polysomnographic Technologists (RPSGTs) who met the criteria the ABSM set forth to bypass taking the exam.
[citation needed] The ABSM and the AASM have both been involved in promoting and explaining the rationale for the RST credential.
Within the sleep community there has been much discussion and some disagreement about the launching of the RST credential when credentials already exist for the RPSGT (from the Board of Registered Polysomnographic Technologists (BRPT)[3]) and the RRT-SDS and CRT-SDS (from the American Association of Sleep Technologists (AAST)[4][5]).