Chairmans Message
The Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at Saint Louis University continues to undergo significant growth and expansion and in the last several months has reached two milestones.
The department has experienced two unprecedented developments in the long history of its existence. The first is a new endowed chair of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery and the second is the hire of a full-time basic scientist.
In April of this year an investiture ceremony took place where Dr. Mark Varvares was named as the first holder of the Donald and Marlene Jerome Endowed Chair in Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery. Dr. Jerome and his wife Marlene provided the funding necessary to create this endowment which will help to support the academic pursuits of the chairman of the department. Dr. Jerome spent his entire professional career as a very busy general Otolaryngologist – Head and Neck Surgeon in Belleville. After retiring a few years ago he had maintained a very strong connection with the university and in particular with retired dean, Dr. Patricia Monteleone. We are greatly appreciative to Dr. Jerome for his generosity. This gift brings significant prestige to the department and training program at Saint Louis University.
Dr. Michael Anne Gratton has formally agreed to move her basic science research program from the University of Pennsylvania to Saint Louis University. Dr. Gratton is a PhD who interestingly, initially began her career as an Audiologist but subsequently trained in the basic science and physiology of hearing. She has been a consistently funded investigator and has expertise in cochlear anatomy and pathophysiology and in the role of stria vascularis in both normal hearing and hearing loss. The establishment of her laboratory will allow Dr. Mikulec to move his work from the laboratories at Washington University on cochlear drug diffusion and delivery to the Saint Louis University campus. We look forward to the growth of the basic research division under the direction of Dr. Gratton.
The clinical faculty continues to grow and expand, most recently with the addition of Dr. Todd Brickman to the general and head and neck surgical practice. Dr. Brickman is just completing a combined fellowship in head and neck reconstructive microsurgery with Drs. Odell and Varvares as well as the head and neck group at Washington University. Dr. Brickman is an MD/PhD and hopes to not only establish a clinical program at Missouri Baptist and the university but also hopes to be a primary investigator in a variety of head and neck oncological projects. Dr. George Katsantonis, who has been working with us part-time, will increase his commitment to the department. Dr. Katsantonis will help facilitate the growth of the Sleep Center and multi-disciplinary sleep program at the School of Medicine.
Sarah Borton, AuD has also joined the department as an Audiologist. She recently completed her training at the University of Arizona and will help cover our continually expanding needs in Audiology.
The Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery with the help and assistance of the university has purchased the practice of retiring Otolaryngologist Dr. John McKinney on the Missouri Baptist campus. This practice location will be primarily serviced by Dr. Todd Brickman. In addition Drs. Varvares, Odell, Sanford, Eisenbeis, Mikulec and Katsantonis are all committed to spend time at that site at regularly scheduled times. We feel that Missouri Baptist allows us another venue in which to serve our expanding patient base. We’re greatly appreciative to the help and cooperation of our staff and management group to help make this practice expansion a reality.
The staff and faculty at the Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center will be moving into new space. Under the leadership of new Director of Pediatric Otolaryngology Dr. Ron Mitchell, we have negotiated with the hospital to move into a renovated space in the old ambulatory care building. In addition, we have hired two new nurse practitioners to work full-time at Cardinal Glennon, Tara Albert, MSN, RN, CPNP and Alicia McGlaughlin, MSN, RN, CPNP. The addition of these two nurse practitioners will greatly facilitate our ability to care for the large patient population that we see at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Medical Center.
A significant development at the School of Medicine that will directly impact the department is the arrival of new dean Dr. Phillip Alderson. Dr. Alderson comes to us from Columbia University in New York where he had been chair of Radiology for the last 20 years. He is a charismatic, dynamic new dean who has a vision that will bring Saint Louis University School of Medicine into the top tier medical schools across the country. Dr. Alderson has a tremendous interest in the development of the Cancer Center. This will have direct impact on a major portion of our clinical programs at the University Hospital campus.
Other existing clinical research programs in the department continue to be productive. Drs. Sindwani and Sanford are collaborating with members of the department of Microbiology to investigate meta-genomics techniques in Rhinology. The head and neck consortium at the School of Medicine submitted and had ten presentations accepted for the International Head and Neck meeting in San Francisco this summer. The topics are varied and include the use of PET/CT scanning in the management of head and neck cancer, issues related to anxiety in head and neck cancer patients, aggressive skin cancer metastatic to cervical lymph nodes and nutritional challenges in patients treated with chemoradiotherapy for head and neck cancer, as well as other topics.
You can see we have much work ahead of us this summer. From all of us in the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at Saint Louis University we would like to wish you the very best for a restful and safe summer.
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