By Linda Satter
A special thanks to our guest speakers at the Second Annual Otolaryngology Diamond Conference held the first weekend of June!
The conference at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences campus in Little Rock was presented by the UAMS College of Medicine’s Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery and included some fascinating lectures and panel discussions.
Colin Driscoll, M.D., chair of the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery at the Mayo Clinic who has a special interest in ear and skull base disorders, shared his insights on tympanoplasty, while Julia Ongkasuwan, M.D., chief of laryngology at Baylor College of Medicine, discussed vocal fold movement impairment as part of a session focused on pediatrics.
Stephen Lai, M.D., Ph.D., FACS was the third keynote speaker who joined us from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he is a professor in the departments of Head and Neck Surgery, Molecular and Cellular Oncology and Radiation Oncology. His presentation was “The evolution in the standard of care and the role of sentinel lymph node biopsy in early-stage oral cavity cancer.”
Aaron Metrailer, M.D., of the Arkansas Otolaryngology Center, took part in a panel discussion focused on otology alongside Driscoll and John Dornhoffer, M.D., chair of the UAMS Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery.
In addition to Dornhoffer, several other members of our own team of specialists participated in the presentations. They included Mauricio Moreno, M.D., professor and vice chair of the department, who moderated a panel discussion on head and neck oncology with Lai, Emre Vural, M.D., and Jumin Sunde, M.D., in which the panelists discussed various approaches to actual cases while viewing the patient images on a large screen; Patrick Fraley, M.D., who discussed novel and emerging therapies for the diagnosis and treatment of sleep disordered breathing; Jennings Boyette, M.D., a facial plastic surgeon, who presented “Nasal Reconstruction: Art and (Mostly) Practice”; Jeffrey Kirsch, M.D., FACS, who discussed tongue and hyoid suspension for obstructive sleep apnea; and Ozlem Tulunay-Ugur, M.D., who engaged the audience with her talk, “The Aging Voice.”
The special session devoted to pediatrics included a panel discussion, “Medical Missions in Otolaryngology: Maintenance, Sustainability and Outcomes” by UAMS’ Larry Hartzell, M.D., a frequent participant in cleft lip and palate missions to Ecuador and other impoverished countries; Adam Johnson, M.D., Ph.D., who is also a cleft lip and palate surgeon who regularly participates in humanitarian missions; and Ongkasuwan.
The 2023 Diamond Conference is scheduled for April 14-15, 2023. Be sure to save the date!