About Us
William K. Rawlinson, MD, FCCP
Diplomate, American Board of Sleep Medicine
Education and Experience
Dr.
Rawlinson received his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University
of Utah. He entered the United States Air Force and completed an Internal
Medicine Residency and Pulmonary Diseases Fellowship at Wilford Hall USAF
Medical Center, Lackland AFB, San Antonio, Texas. During his Pulmonary Diseases
Fellowship, he received training in Sleep Medicine.
His next Air Force assignment was to Malcolm Grow USAF Medical Center at Andrews AFB, Washington, DC, where he served as the Chief of the Pulmonary Disease Service and as Medical Director for Respiratory Therapy and the Intensive Care Unit. During this time, he was appointed an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland. He passed separate examinations to become triple board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Disease, and Critical Care Medicine.
Dr. Rawlinson and his family then moved to Newark, Ohio where he practiced pulmonary and sleep medicine in private practice and in a large, multi-specialty group. He served as the Medical Director of Respiratory Therapy and the Intensive Care Unit at Licking Memorial Hospital for thirteen years and as Medical Director of the Sleep Laboratory for three years.
Board Certified
On April 16, 2003, Dr. Rawlinson successfully completed board examinations administered by the American Board of Sleep Medicine to achieve his fourth board certification. His fond memories of central Texas led him to accept a position with Central Texas Chest Clinic and move his family to Austin. He is glad to be a Texan again! He loves the practice of medicine, and finds helping those with sleep disorders to "get their life back" rather than "sleep it away" is particularly rewarding.
Why Sleep Medicine?
People sometimes wonder why a lung specialist is interested in sleep problems.
Sleep Medicine is truly a multi-specialty field, because sleep problems
affect so many parts of the body. Traditionally, lung specialists became
involved in sleep medicine because patients were observed to stop breathing
during sleep (usually due to obstructive
sleep apnea). Neurologists typically dealt with narcolepsy
and psychiatrists with insomnia.
As our understanding of sleep disorders grew, the field of sleep medicine
drew interested physicians from all of these areas as well as others. Every
board certified sleep specialist has objectively demonstrated mastery of
key knowledge about sleep disorders that spans the multiple specialty areas
involved in sleep medicine.