Many of my patients have a benign condition known as an acoustic neuroma, which is a tumor that grows in the ear’s acoustic nerve. When surgery is necessary, I work alongside neurosurgeons to very precisely remove the unwanted tissue.
Other skull base tumors that I treat include meningiomas, epidermoids, and glomus tumors. I also manage the surgical and medical treatment of people suffering from complex ear-related problems such as hearing loss, otosclerosis (an abnormal growth of bone in the ear), cholesteatoma (a skin cyst that grows in the middle ear), and facial nerve tumors.
In addition to being a member of the neurosurgery team at Memorial Sloan Kettering, I serve as a Professor and Vice Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology and as a Professor of Otolaryngology in Neurological Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. I greatly enjoy working with students and overseeing their rotation through Cornell’s Department of Otolaryngology.
When I myself was a medical student, I initially thought I would become a family practice doctor. Then I became fascinated with the anatomy of the ear and surrounding areas. So I went from wanting to know a little bit about everything to becoming an expert in this subspecialty.
As such, I lecture nationally and internationally on ear-related, neurotologic, and skull base topics and am Past President of the American Otological Society. I’m also a past President of the American Neurotology Society, the nation’s largest specialty organization of neurotologists/skull base surgeons. I have been on the executive council of the American Neurotology Society and have served on or chaired numerous committees for the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, the Triological Society, the American College of Surgeons, and others. I am also on the board of directors of the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, and was the proud recipient of their Certificate of Honor in 1996.
In my research, I have been the principal investigator on a number of key clinical trials and have published extensively in peer-reviewed journals. In 2019, I was appointed Editor-in-Chief of The Laryngoscope, a leading journal on head and neck disorders. I am also on the editorial board of the journal Otology and Neurotology and have been a guest editor of The Otolaryngologic Clinics of North America.
One of my jobs is to educate each patient about his or her condition and then to explain what the best treatment options are. My hope is that patients feel confident and reassured that they are getting the very best care possible.
Outside of work, I enjoy sports and traveling with my family.
