American Neurotology Society Report: ANS on the move
Barry Hirsch, MD, President of the American Neurotology Society (ANS), Craig A. Buchman, MD, Education Director, and Howard W. Francis, MD, Education Director-Elect, along with the ANS Scientific Program Committee, assembled a lively, up-to-the-minute program at this year’s Combined Otolaryngology Spring Meetings (COSM).
Bradley W. Kesser, MD
ANS Secretary-Treasurer
Barry Hirsch, MD, President of the American Neurotology Society (ANS), Craig A. Buchman, MD, Education Director, and Howard W. Francis, MD, Education Director-Elect, along with the ANS Scientific Program Committee, assembled a lively, up-to-the-minute program at this year’s Combined Otolaryngology Spring Meetings (COSM). As highlights of the meeting, Nancy M. Young, MD, delivered the William F. House Memorial Lecture: “Cortical Predictors of Language: A Top-down Exploration of Pediatric Cochlear Implantation,” and Bruce J. Gantz, MD, explored the “Evolution of the Middle Fossa Access for Skull Base Disorders” as the William E. Hitselberger Memorial Lecturer. Panel discussions on Ménière’s disease and disorders of intracranial pressure stimulated thinking and new ideas and added to an excellent slate of scientific presentations on cochlear implantation, vestibular schwannoma, facial nerve injury, and many others. The meeting was outstanding for otologists and neurotologists alike.
The ANS Diversity and Inclusion Committee, chaired by Elizabeth H. Toh, MD, is charged with ensuring that the education activities sponsored by the ANS provide equal opportunities for all practitioners to participate from the podium and that the leadership of the ANS is representative of its membership. The chair of the committee sits on both the Education Committee and the Executive Council to ensure that the education and administrative activities have broad representation of all of our members. These include panel moderators or members, presenters of named lectures, inclusion in administrative and research committees, and leadership positions within the organization. Data collection is well underway with two surveys completed to track the success of the Society in promoting diversity and inclusion.
The ANS has also embarked on a partnership with DocMatter, an online platform where doctors can share information, discuss difficult cases, upload HIPAA-compliant patient information for discussion, and query each other on challenging patients. This instructive online resource is free to members, with the launch to the general membership shortly after COSM. The “pilot” participants have found the website helpful, stimulating, and fun, with discussions ranging from management of skin irritation around bone-anchored hearing aid sites to cochlear implant array insertion for hearing preservation to options for hearing habilitation in congenital aural atresia. ANS members, look out for the introductory email in the weeks to come.
The ANS Fellowship Committee is exploring a centralized application for the neurotology fellowship match. Chair Dan Lee, MD, has been in discussion with the San Francisco Match to develop this application.
For a listing and program description and information about neurotology fellowships and anything neurotology, please check the updated and highly informative ANS website: www.americanneurotologysociety.com.
