RENÉE BACHER

It doesn’t necessarily take a crystal ball to see the bigger future of otolaryngology, but the details can sometimes be a little murky. ENTtoday asked four newly minted chairs of otolaryngology departments how they made it to their positions, what they feel is the most important aspect of leadership, and what they feel the future holds for academic medicine.

With thousands of civilians killed since February in the Russian war on Ukraine, the Ukrainian people face one of the biggest challenges in their history. As officials and observers allege war crimes, we spoke with three on-the-ground physicians about what is happening, how emergency physicians there are coping, and what they need to survive.

Ultrasound-guided radiofrequency ablation (RFA), a minimally invasive alternative to thyroid surgery, has been used internationally to shrink large, benign thyroid nodules for more than a decade. But only in recent years has there been growing interest in the U.S. in this procedure, typically performed by endocrinologists, radiologists, and otolaryngologists.
“As a thyroid surgeon, I became aware of literature that arose in Asia and Europe, where radiofrequency ablation has been used for many...

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen crisis standards of care created and implemented in emergency departments across the United States, from waiting rooms converted into treatment spaces to patients back-transferred from urban hospitals with oxygen shortages to rural centers. While some of these documents have been successful, others have been problematic.

Head and neck cancer has been described as a collection of rare diseases, which means means that pathologic expertise in accurate diagnosis is essential. Certainly, there are differences between how a community-based practice and a tertiary care center might approach head and neck cancer diagnosis. But what are they, why do they exist, and what options are there for collaboration?

The road to understanding the various causes of hearing loss and finding the most appropriate treatments has been figuratively as narrow and winding as the inner ear itself. But new imaging techniques using nanotechnology, as well as research advances in pharmaceutical treatments, may mean a wide range of solutions are within sight...

For decades, rheumatologist Cindy Flower, MD, accumulated images of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in her patients, as well as clinical vignettes to use in teaching at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Bridgetown, Barbados. For decades, she has wanted to do something wide-reaching with these materials, sharing information from her practice and her mentor, the late Prof. George D. Nicholson, DM.

New fellowship program directors often step into the role with little in the way of training, resources or mentoring. That’s where the ACR’s Division and Program Directors Conference comes in. At the 2021 event in March, Beth Jonas, MD, distinguished professor of medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Anisha Dua, MD, MPH, associate professor and fellowship program director, Northwestern University, Chicago, provided expert guidance for new fellowship program directors.

Implicit bias negatively affects patients and clinicians alike in a variety of healthcare settings. Unconscious feelings and attitudes about others can damage professional and personal relationships.

At the virtual ACR Division & Program Directors Conference in March, three physician leaders presented a panel called, Demystifying Bias: Empowering You to Have Courageous Conversations, and led small groups in troubleshooting exercises.

Anosmia has been widely acknowledged as a symptom of COVID-19. While olfactory dysfunction (OD) can be the first (and sometimes the only) symptom of COVID-19, some survivors still have not recovered their sense of smell nearly 18 months into the pandemic.
Many people, including physicians, may not be aware that olfactory distortions like parosmia, a distorted sense of smell, and phantosmia, olfactory hallucinations, are also associated with COVID-19. “They may mistakenly think this is somethi...

In one decade, 45 people died in East Baton Rouge Parish Prison. Most were charged with nonviolent misdemeanors. Most didn’t have their day in court. Most were Black. How did the system fail them?

The first gathering of what would become Illinois Unidos, a consortium dedicated to addressing the impact of COVID-19 in the Latino community, is still vivid in the mind of Marina Del Rios Rivera, MD, MSc. “It was a Saturday in April [2020], and I remember how somber that meeting was when we recognized the magnitude of what was about to happen in our community,” she said.
An associate professor at the University of Illinois College of Medicine and an emergency medicine specialist at the unive...