Program Facilities
The Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery's outpatient clinic facility is located in the Physician's Pavilion building, adjacent to the main OHSU Hospital. The department has a total of 18 examining rooms, 10 treatment rooms, three audiometric testing booths, three voice rooms, and a vestibular laboratory. The department has its own library and conference room. The department's administrative offices and secretarial staff are located adjacent to the clinic. We have additional administrative staff located nearby in Sam Jackson Hall. Our facial plastic and reconstructive surgery and sinus clinics are located at the Center for Health & Healing in Portland's South Waterfront District. All of our locations are easily accessible via public transportation, including the Portland tram, and bikes and car-shares are encouraged to limit traffic and ease patient access to our buildings.
The Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery admits patients to OHSU Hospital, Doernbecher Children's Hospital, Providence St. Vincents, and the Portland Veteran's Administration Medical Center (VAMC). The health care system includes nearly 1,000 beds -- OHSU Hospital is licensed for 509 beds and the VA Medical Center is licensed for 490 beds.
Doernbecher Children's Hospital includes an extensive outpatient facility as well as 120 inpatient beds. The Department of Otolaryngology is closely associated with this hospital, utilizing clinic space and operating rooms. The audiology division, and Cochlear Implant Program, is integrated into the children's hospital for speech pathology, implant care, and audiologic care.
The Audiology division is under the direction of Sean McMenomey, M.D. and Donald Plapinger, Ed.D., CCC-A. It consists of seven licensed audiologists. The department provides basic and advanced evaluations, including ABR, ECOG, otoacoustic emissions, intraoperative monitoring, cochlear implant evaluations and rehabilitation, vestibular assessments, and hearing aid dispensing. Drs. McMenomey and Plapinger also run the OHSU Cochlear Implang Program for adults and children.Within the department, there is a temporal bone lab, complete with eight fully equipped positions. Formal temporal bone courses are offered during the second year of training. The lab is regularly accessible to residents for research, study, and patient care.
The department has aligned with the OHSU Tinnitus Clinic under the direction of William Martin, Ph.D. to help patients with Tinnitus and related problems. This clinic provides care for patients with severe tinnitus and is a comprehensive program including extensive research.
The Northwest Center for Voice and Swallowing, our voice disorders program, under the direction of Joshua Schindler, M.D. and Donna Graville, Ph.D., CCC-SP is located in the Physician's Pavilion. This clinic is involved in the management of difficult voice and speech problems, including management of the professional voice. The department offers laryngeal physiology (for research and treatment), as well as newer treatments of voice disorders including Botox injection and implants. Speech pathologists and voice teachers are involved in the service.
The Oregon Hearing Research Center is a division of the Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery and participates closely with the residency training program. The lab occupies 17,000 square feet of the Mark Hatfield Research Center adjacent to the hospital, as well as 4,000 square feet in the Medical Research Building. The OHRC faculty work closely with our residents to develop and carry out research, and there are summer opportunities for medical students to participate in research projects underway. Alfred L. Nuttall, Ph.D. is the director of the center, which includes eight Ph.D's, two M.D.'s and one M.D./Ph.D. The lab is dedicated to hearing research, including vascular diseases of the ear, treatment outcomes, and hair cell regeneration.
The department's other affiliations include the Westide Pimary Care, which offers pediatric and audiology patient care, and NW Kaiser Permanente. The National Center for Rehabilitative Audiology Research (NCRAR) is located at the PVAMC, and is a source of collaboration and research resources. In addition, the department is affiliated with Tucker-Maxon Oral School, which is an oral training school for the profoundly hard of hearing in Portland. Many of the cochlear implant patients are enrolled in this school.
Didactic Instruction
A journal club, special lecture series, board reviews, grand rounds, and special surgical rounds are held weekly throughout the year. An oral quiz session for all residents is conducted one evening each week, ten months of the year. Residents attend special courses, including soft tissue surgery, microanatomy and dissection of the temporal bone, laryngeal dissection, sinus surgery, and head and neck surgery. Additional training is provided when individuals with special expertise are available. Each resident is required to present a paper at a regional or national meeting. Regional meeting registration expenses are provided for first- and second-year residents. Third- and fourth-year residents are funded for national meetings. The Chief Resident is responsible for the assignment of topics for the Grand Rounds sessions, with input from the faculty and other residents
Examinations
All residents take the Otolaryngologic Home Study Course each year during their four-year program and also take the in-service training examination each year
Audiology & Vestibular Testing
The audiologic staff provide an in-depth course with basic and advanced audiology for residents and medical students. The audiologic department fits and services hearing aids, and has an active Cochlear Implant Program, with a multidisciplinary team approach to coordinate care for both children and adults. Although the resident is expected to know how to perform audiometric testing and audiologic assessment, generally this is provided by the audiologists. Residents will receive training in ABR and cochlear implants.
A vestibular lab, which is housed in the clinic, consists of an ENG, rotary chair, platform and optokinetic visual testing lab. The lab is staffed by Ahn Nguyen-Huynh, M.D..
Surgical Experience
A heavy surgical load provides experience in all areas of the specialty. The PGY-1 experience with the Department of Surgery ensures a solid knowledge base before continuing to the Otolaryngology training. In the remaining Otolaryngology training, residents gain experience as a responsible operating surgeon in all types of temporal bone and middle-ear operations, rhinoplasties, maxillofacial trauma, sinus surgical procedures, partial and total laryngectomies, neck dissections, other head and neck tumors, plastic and reconstructive procedures, pediatric airway problems and endoscopy. Special populations at the PVAMC and Kaiser NW facilities provide additional surgical experience.
Call Schedule
The PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents share in-house call. The PGY-4 and PGY-5 residents take second call at home. In house call responsibilities are shared between the three PGY-2 residents and the 2 PGY-3 residents who are not on the research rotation. The PGY-3 resident on the research rotation does not take call during that rotation.