Dear Colleagues,
I’m pleased to bring you this year’s Penn Otorhinolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery Newsletter.
2022 was a year of exploration, participation and growth for the Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Penn Medicine. These elements were much in evidence through the proliferation of available services and resources across our hospital system, the extension of our reach in medical education and services to underrepresented communities, the engagement of our peers at major medical meetings, awards and accolades, and the astonishing variety of departmental research occurring here—yielding more than 140 publications in 2022 alone.
This issue offers examples of some of the great research and collaborations arising from Penn ENT, including:
- A report, from Noam Cohen, MD, who found himself holding the key to one of COVID’s greatest mysteries—why some people experience severe disease but others don’t. Dr. Cohen put his collection of nasal epithelial cells to work and discovered a gene cluster expressed in some cells that predisposes certain individuals to greater disease severity.
- Collaboration between two of the region’s premier surgical centers, Penn Medicine and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), is at the heart of a fascinating article about our shared endoscopic skull base surgery program, which is now entering its second decade. A recent finding from the program has prompted a clinical trial to investigate the efficacy of a pan-RAF inhibitor in patients whose possess the BRAF mutation V600E, a likely contributor to craniopharyngiomas.
- Another team effort with CHOP is taking place at the Penn Balance and Dizziness Center, where doctors Sherrie Davis, AuD, Robert C. O'Reilly, MD, Michael J. Ruckenstein, MD, MSc, FACS and Tiffany Hwa, MD, have developed a database to better define the mysteries of vestibular migraine and other balance issues across the lifetimes of affected patients.
I trust you will find this issue engaging and look forward to sharing more exciting advances from Penn ENT in the future.
Sincerely,
D. Gregory Farwell, MD, FACS
Chair, Department of Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery
Gabriel Tucker Professor of Otorhinolaryngology