It is a fascinating time in history to be asked what the future holds. The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the world of health care—from wearing masks and strengthening systemic control precautions to implementing universal preoperative testing and virtual meetings. It would be easier to make predictions if we had not been in such a different place less than a year ago, but the one thing that is sure to remain constant is the House Institute’s dedication to excellence and commitment as leaders in the fields of otology and neurotology.
Each House physician is carefully chosen by the senior associates and groomed to become the finest otologic and neurotologic surgeon. Our faculty has the single most complete body of knowledge about ear and skull base disease and treatment internationally. Our culture is one of inherited knowledge and experience. There are constant discussions about unique cases, imaging studies and pathology so that experience is passed throughout our organization to our trainees and our visiting physicians in an unbroken chain. Ours is also a culture of continued investigation. Our physicians are always excited to learn a new detail of our field, no matter how many years they have practiced.
Beyond continuing House’s legacy of learning, as the younger physicians of the faculty our mission is to innovate. We stay at the cutting edge of our field by learning new techniques and acquiring new devices to bring to patient care. We are also continuously involved in patient-centered research on improving treatment outcomes, predicting the course of disease, and improving our patients’ experience. In the future, we plan to add more translational scientists into our organization, focusing on the areas of implantable devices (such as the cochlear implant and the auditory brainstem implant) and skull base tumors (for example, vestibular schwannomas and neurofibromatosis type 2). The partnership of our physicians and scientists will allow the House Institute to continue to bring new therapies to our patients from the bench to their bedside and propel us through the next 75 years.
In Solidarity,
Mia E. Miller, MD
Education Committee Chair
Kevin A. Peng, MD
Research Committee Chair