Overview
The 12-month Emory Voice Center Laryngology Fellowship will expose fellows to the full spectrum of voice and swallowing disorders and the medical and surgical management of these conditions. Through monthly case rounds, clinic-based teaching, and progressive responsibilities in the operating room, fellows will receive a well-balanced, academic experience.
The Emory Voice Center consists of a multidisciplinary team of fellowship-trained laryngologists, voice therapists, singing specialists, and dysphagia therapists who treat the entire spectrum of voice, swallowing, and airway-related pathologies using state-of-the-art equipment and techniques. The center annually performs approximately 3000 videostroboscopic voice examinations and over 1000 voice, swallowing, and airway-related procedures.
Goals and Objectives
- Fellows are expected to become familiar with videostrobolaryngoscopy techniques and interpretation, and to learn history-taking and physical examination skills by evaluating patients in the outpatient setting.
- Diagnostic abilities are tested through fellows presenting the previous weeks' difficult cases at monthly case rounds, and showing that they understand and can express all issues pertaining to patients' diagnoses and treatment. Fellows also work closely with on-site speech language pathologists and singing specialists to improve their understanding of the role of nonsurgical treatment and physical rehabilitation of the voice.
- Fellows will perform numerous office-based procedures, including videostrobolaryngoscopy, transnasal esophagoscopy, laryngeal botulinum toxin injections, awake injection medialization laryngoplasties, laryngeal electromyography, and awake endolaryngeal laser procedures.
- The OR experience will expose the fellow to such endolaryngeal procedures as direct laryngoscopies, microsuspension laryngoscopies, phonomicrosurgery for benign and malignant lesions, and treatment of laryngeal and airway stenosis; laryngeal framework procedures; and major airway reconstruction. Fellows will learn the physiological and technical issues pertaining to these surgeries.
- In order to hone a surgical skill set to treat disorders of the voice, fellows have access to an on-site, state-of-the-art laryngeal surgical dissection lab equipped with surgical trainers. This resource allows laryngeal framework procedures and endolaryngeal phonomicrosurgery to be performed on cadaveric specimens.
- Following completion of the program, fellows will have comprehensive knowledge of voice, airway, and swallowing disorders; be competent in their evaluation and treatment; be able to perform the full array of office-based procedures for the conditions; and be skilled in endoscopic and open laryngeal, pharyngeal, and airway surgical procedures in the OR setting.
Duties and Responsibilities
Team Participation
Emory's laryngology fellows are expected to function as part of the team of physicians and speech pathologists at the center's outpatient location at Emory University Hospital Midtown, particularly in patient workups and office-based procedures. Fellows will have their own clinics for voice, airway, and swallowing disorders once per week, and will participate in surgical procedures with all faculty mentors. As they progressively perform the more complex aspects of the surgeries, fellows will develop a solid skill set in phonomicrosurgical and laryngeal framework techniques in the surgical training lab. Time will be allotted for this purpose as needed. Fellows will experience greater degrees of autonomy during rotations at Grady Memorial Hospital, where they will staff laryngology-related cases and clinics and general otolaryngology cases when feasible.
Call
Fellows will rotate in the attending call schedule in the Department of Otolaryngology.
Research
Fellows are expected to participate in new or ongoing research efforts. Currently, our faculty are involved in various clinical and laboratory-based research projects, several of which are translational studies in conjunction with scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Fellows are expected to submit at least one abstract to a national meeting for oral presentation and one manuscript to a peer-reviewed journal.
Conferences
Fellows have the option of attending all educational conferences sponsored by the Emory Voice Center and the Department of Otolaryngology. An effort will be made to sponsor the fellow at a regional or national conference if they have an accepted presentation.
Housing
The Emory Voice Center is unable to offer room or board to visiting fellows, though it can assist in resolving these issues.
Salary
Fellows will receive standard benefits and be paid at a PGY-6 level, per Emory University Department of Otolaryngology pay scale.
Eligibility and Application
Applicants must have successfully completed an otolaryngology residency, passed all three stages of the USMLE, and be eligible for a Georgia State Medical License.
To apply, please email fellowship director Dr. Jeanne Hatcher.
Program Faculty
Director:
Additional Faculty: