Current Environment: Development

Dev

Medical Services

Specialties

Programs & Services

Languages

  • English
  • Finnish

Education

Undergraduate School

Syracuse University

Syracuse, NY

Medical School

SUNY Upstate Medical Center

Syracuse, NY

Internship

University of Massachusetts Medical Center

Worcester, MA

Residency

University of Chicago

Chicago, IL

Fellowship

Otology Group

Nashville, TN

Certifications

  • American Board of Otolaryngology (General)
  • American Board of Otolaryngology (Neurotology)

Professional History

I have spent my career in Boston, MA practicing Heotology/neurotology and skull base surgery.  I’ve worked to develop minimally invasive endoscopic surgical techniques in this field and developed new procedures for Eustachian tube disorders.  My research activities focus on otitis media and disorders of the Eustachian tube, specifically investigating the inflammatory basis of Eustachian tube dysfunction and conducting research on novel medical and surgical treatments.  I came to Boston Children’s hospital in 2003 after spending nine years in private practice and I previously worked at Tufts Medical Center and Lahey Clinic.  In 2011, I completed a PhD at the University of Tampere, Finland in Pathophysiology and Surgical Treatment of the Eustachian tube and did postdoctoral work with the NanoEar European Union consortium on nanotechnology for targeted delivery of inner ear and middle ear therapy.  I now work to develop new methods to understand and treat Eustachian tube disorders, offering these techniques to my patients and teaching others internationally in these methods.  I run the International Eustachian Tube Study Group and I serve as the principle investigator for two multicenter clinical trials of Balloon Eustachian Tuboplasty.

Publications

It has been a rewarding privilege to be able to serve my patients over the many years of my career to date. Although I initially trained in Bio-Medical Engineering, I knew that my calling would be in caring for patients. I have devoted my efforts to taking the best possible care of my patients, who are like my family when they are under my responsibility. Additionally, I have always pursued research into finding better ways to improve upon that care. Equally important has been my goal of training other doctors and surgeons to share in my values and to benefit from my experience. Ear and communication disorders are among the most common and disabling problems worldwide and it became my mission to work on the means to try to prevent these problems from occurring or worsening. We have been fortunate enough to make significant advances in these goals, creating new understanding of some of the diseases, developing diagnostic methods and surgical therapy that is making a difference in the outcomes in our patients. Joining Boston Children’s Hospital brought to me the opportunity to increasingly focus my efforts for treating these diseases in the most vulnerable times of our patients’ lives.