USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology -
Head and Neck Surgery
Annual Report
2023 - 2024
Chair's Message
John S. Oghalai, MD.
Leon J. Tiber and David S. Alpert Professor and Chair
USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
Dear Reader,
Thank you for your interest in our department’s work. I am privileged to work with the dedicated faculty, staff, and trainees of the USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery. Their commitment to patient care and improving lives drives everything we do.
This report highlights how our innovative research, comprehensive clinical programs, and top-ranked educational initiatives are making an impact both locally in Los Angeles and globally.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
John S. Oghalai, MD.
Leon J. Tiber and David S. Alpert Professor.
Chair, USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology-
Head and Neck Surgery.
Trends & Initiatives
50,000
With our expanded clinical footprint, we served nearly 50,000 patients last year.
240+
More than 240 applications were received for four residency slots last year.
125+
Our faculty published more than 125 publications last year.
Research
We are committed to training future generations of clinician-scientists from under-represented backgrounds.
Community
We are committed to supporting our community and promoting awareness about ear, nose, and throat health, ensuring everyone has access to vital information for their well-being.
DEI Initiatives
We are committed to driving change through OtoGives, OtoTalks, OtoTeaches, JEDI-WeST, Bridging the Gaps, and faculty recruitment initiatives.
Education & Training
Education
Our educational programs for master’s students, residents, and fellows are competitive, popular, and growing.
Our residency program receives over 240 applications for four Post-Graduate Year 1 (PGY1) positions each year.
The faculty includes experts in clinical patient care and research. Each faculty member brings expertise through participation in teaching rounds, instruction in clinics and surgery, formal teaching conferences, and research.
We develop residents as future leaders and educators.
Our Residents
The USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery provides residents with education in the comprehensive evaluation and management of diseases and disorders of the ears, upper respiratory system, upper alimentary system, and related structures of the head and neck. Residents obtain graduated responsibility in accordance with their level of training. They are under the supervision of the faculty member who brings his or her expertise through participation in teaching rounds, instruction in clinics and surgery, formal teaching conferences, and research.
Our residents and fellows presented at the Howard P. House, MD Research Symposium on June 14, 2024. Our academic residency program includes research training that is designed to enable residents to develop their own research interests at the highest level. We take this commitment to resident research training seriously, as we believe that research training achieves multiple goals. Research training enhances our ability to appraise critically published research studies and understand how the medical literature should impact our care for patients.
Our 23-24 chief residents, Alison Yu, MD, James Kim, MD, Marta Kulich, MD, and Shane Zhou, MD, have graduated, and two of our current 24-25 chief residents, Isabelle Magro and Margaret Nurimba, matched into fellowships at UC Davis in Facial Plastics and Reconstructive Surgery and Mount Sinai in Head and Neck Oncology/Microvascular Reconstruction.
We welcomed four new residents: Casey Collet (Keck School of Medicine of USC), Michelle Fong (Keck School of Medicine of USC), Esther Wang (Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago), and Stephanie Wong (California University of Science and Medicine) joined the department's clinical residency program, while Joshua Lin (Keck School of Medicine of USC) joined our Otolarynoglogy Residency Clinician Scientist Training Program.
Our faculty are dedicated to training the next generation of medical professionals.
Fellowship Programs
We are proud of our fellows’ achievements and remain committed to providing robust training that advances the care of patients across our specialties.
Dorothy Pan, MD, Ph.D., entered her second year in the ACGME-accredited Neurotology Fellowship program. The fellowship ensures that concentrated time is available for the neurotology fellows to develop advanced diagnostic expertise and advanced medical and surgical management skills for the care of diseases and disorders of the petrous apex, infratemporal fossa, internal auditory canals, cranial nerves, and lateral skull base, including the occipital bone, sphenoid bone, and temporal bone.
The USC Voice Center remains at the forefront of training future leaders in laryngology. Chloe Santa Maria, MD, completed the laryngology fellowship program in 2024. Kacie La Forest, CCC-SLP, completed the 2022 Speech-Language Pathology Clinical Fellowship and has joined our team as a speech-language pathologist. We welcomed Nicolas Valdez, CCC-SLP, as the 2023 SLP Clinical Fellow.
Advancing Research and Clinical Innovation in Auditory and Communication Neuroscience
Hearing & Communication Neuroscience (HCN) Program
Creative research in experimental and theoretical neuroscience, with a focus on hearing and vocal communication.
As a major component of its education mission, the Department of Otolaryngology administers USC’s Hearing and Communication Neuroscience (HCN) Training Program. Funded by a grant from the National Institute on Deafness & Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), the HCN program is a collaborative, university-wide initiative that provides graduate and post-graduate training in experimental and theoretical neuroscience, with a focus on hearing and vocal communication. Transcending conventional departmental boundaries, the HCN program is jointly sponsored by the Keck School of Medicine; the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences; and the Viterbi School of Engineering and is directed by Christopher Shera, Professor of Otolaryngology.
HCN-affiliated labs investigate everything from the development and function of the auditory nervous system at the cellular, mechanical, and neural-circuit levels to cognitive constructs such as neural representations of memories, plans, and actions. An integrated understanding of mechanisms at different levels of analysis is crucial for advancing our knowledge of hearing and communication disorders and developing treatments and cures.
Current HCN trainees working in OHNS labs include graduate student Julianna Bordas (Applegate Lab), who is working to improve the power of optical coherence tomography to measure motions within the inner ear; and postdoc Juliana Giacomini (Kalluri Lab), who is studying the development of biophysical properties in cochlear inner hair cells.
Evidence-Based and Culturally Sensitive Services.
Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology Program
The MS-SLP graduated its second class of 23 speech-language pathologists in August of 2024. Students and their families participated in a beautiful graduation ceremony in the spring and then completed their academic program in the summer semester. As part of their graduate education, students earned over 400 clinical hours in six different clinical placements, all within the urban community of greater Los Angeles, including schools, health care settings and private practices. Students earn hearing screening hours in a special arrangement with the USC Thornton School of Music, where MS-SLP students screen the hearing of students within Thornton, which is a wonderful collaboration and benefit for both programs. Other highlights of their graduate program include SPAN Lab visit, cadaver lab observation, annual child language workshop, white coat ceremony, monthly Coffee and Conversation meetings, Health Sciences Interprofessional Education (IPE) Day participation and others. In year two of their graduate program, students are placed with various research labs across USC and other universities to complete a capstone project. This is a model unique to USC and unique in CSD graduate programs. Students volunteered at the first annual Black History Month celebration, at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books in the OHNS Booth and participated in several 5K walks to raise funds for CHLA, Spastic Dysphonia, and Childhood Apraxia. The USC National Student Speech-Language and Hearing Association (NSSHLA) Chapter was recognized as a Gold Chapter by National NSSHLA, recognizing their high level of community activism and participation. Students also participated in various OHNS celebrations and recognitions, particularly with voice and head and neck cancer events. All graduating students have met criteria to obtain a RPE (Required Professional Experience) state license in speech-language pathology, begin a Clinical Fellowship toward their Certificate of Clinical Competence through ASHA, and receive a preliminary credential through the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC) to work in public schools. The faculty has also grown to 6.7 full-time faculty members, with 4 other part-time faculty from within OHNS who co-teach courses in the program and one adjunct faculty from the community.
Minor in Speech-Language and Hearing Profession
The Speech-Language and Hearing Professions Minor is offered at the University Park Campus (UPC) to USC undergraduate students, who are interested in speech-language pathology or audiology as a potential career, and/or to students in other related pre-health areas. Students in this program must take 4 of 5 offered classes, for 16 units. This year a new course was added: OHNS 303, Telehealth and Assistive Technology in Speech-Language Pathology. Since the program opened in Spring 2020, eleven (11) students have completed the minor program, which reflects on their transcripts, and they receive a diploma reflecting this accomplishment. Of these students, two have gone on to graduate school in Occupational Therapy, one has gone on to medical school at Keck, three are pursuing required post-baccalaureate course study for communication sciences and disorders (CSD) to enter graduate school in SLP and two are entering graduate school in speech-language pathology, one here at USC! There are also other students who have taken just one course in the minor who have also gone on to post-baccalaureate studies in CSD and one who has entered graduate school in SLP out of state. The courses are taught by faculty from the MS-SLP Program.
Research
“ USC’s vibrant community of faculty and trainees are devoted to solving problems in hearing and communication.”
Research is central to our mission because we are not just here to provide the standard-of-care; we are here to advance it. We are proud to be at USC as it is focused on improving the lives of patients, furthering science, and training the next generation of leaders. These are the reasons our faculty decided to come to USC and work at a major university. Every faculty member recognizes the importance of research to our ability to help our patients. Our research generates high-impact discoveries and moving success stories.
Throughout 2023, we continued to refine our new diagnostic tool for the ear based on photonics—the physical science of light waves. This novel device provides our physicians with a faster, more precise, and less invasive tool to assess ear health. We are now using it in the clinic routinely to understand why our patients have hearing loss and to help guide their care.
In July, John S. Oghalai, MD, and Brian Applegate, PhD, received a grant from the USC Research and Innovation, Small Business Innovation Research, and Small Business Technology Transfer Planning Award Program to fund the commercialization of the device—a major step toward making this tool more widely available for clinical use around the world.
Innovation
Impact
Funding
Hearing Aids Help Patients Live Longer
Hearing loss affects approximately 40 million American adults, yet only one in 10 people who need hearing aids use them, research shows.
Those who don’t use hearing aids but should may want to make wearing them one of their New Year’s resolutions, according to a new study from Keck Medicine of USC published today in The Lancet Healthy Longevity.
“We found that adults with hearing loss who regularly used hearing aids had a 24% lower risk of mortality than those who never wore them,” said Janet Choi, MD, MPH, an otolaryngologist with Keck Medicine and lead researcher of the study. “These results are exciting because they suggest that hearing aids may play a protective role in people’s health and prevent early death.”
Cannabis Use Tied to Head and Neck Cancer
A study from the USC Head and Neck Center, part of Keck Medicine of USC and the USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, suggests that cannabis, the most commonly used illicit substance worldwide, is associated with an increased occurrence of head and neck cancer.
A large, multicenter study published in JAMA Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery revealed that adults with cannabis dependence, known as cannabis use disorder, are 3.5 to 5 times more likely to develop head and neck cancer than those who do not use the substance.
“This is one of the first studies — and the largest that we know of to date — to associate head and neck cancer with cannabis use,” said Niels Kokot, MD, a head and neck surgeon with the USC Head and Neck Center and senior author of the study. “The detection of this risk factor is important because head and neck cancer may be preventable once people know which behaviors increase their risk.”
In the vestibular organ, called utricle, proliferation (white) is never observed in the sensory epithelium (green, red). With LKI treatment, many cells divide (white) and initiate hair cell gene expression, similar to regenerative species.
In the vestibular organ, called utricle, proliferation (white) is never observed in the sensory epithelium (green, red). With LKI treatment, many cells divide (white) and initiate hair cell gene expression, similar to regenerative species.
Regenerating Inner Ear Hair Cells
The regeneration of damaged inner ear hair cells is a leading priority of our hearing loss research program. Some animals, such as chickens, can regenerate inner ear sensory hair cells, and we have learned a lot from them. Unfortunately, inner ear hair cells do not regenerate in mammals. But our faculty are determined to change that. Through a designer drug called LKI, developed by Ksenia Gnedeva, PhD, Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery and Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine, we can now regenerate hair cells in mice. This is a very promising step on the path to creating a cure for hearing loss in humans.
Cellular Therapy
Our scientists have teamed with researchers at USC’s Eli and Edythe Broad Center for Regenerative Medicine to advance our efforts to grow new inner ear sensory cells. Through our collaboration, we have reached a significant milestone: We can now program human stem cells to turn into hair cells in a petri dish. This is a promising first step toward creating a third cure for hearing loss.
Clinical Milestones
"Our multidisciplinary researchers and physician-scientists are dedicated to constantly improving patient care by bringing the best ideas from research labs to clinic and hospital rooms, advancing diagnosis and treatment options for patients."
Expansion of our clinical footprint
In 2023, the Caruso Department cared for more than 49,000 patients. Our patient volume continues to increase as we expand our presence into new neighborhoods. We currently have eight clinical sites and a presence in eight hospitals throughout the greater Los Angeles region including:
- Keck Hospital of USC
- Arcadia Hospital of USC
- Verdugo Hills Hospital of USC
- Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles
- Henry Mayo Hospital
- Casa Colina Hospital
- LA General Medical Center
- Rancho Los Amigos
50,000
Patient Visits Per Year
1,100+
Inpatient Surgeries Per Year
24,000+
Outpatient Surgeries Per Year
Quality of care and patient safety
Our multidisciplinary researchers and physician-scientists are dedicated to constantly improving patient care by bringing the best ideas from research labs to clinic and hospital rooms, advancing patient diagnosis and treatment options. We bring the most up-to-date, evidence-based practices and treatment options to our patients and their families.
Faculty
“All our faculty and trainees at USC perform research as part of their daily activities, and what they do changes the way medicine is practiced. This is part of our culture.”
62
Faculty Members
29
Faculty Awards
125+
Papers Published
Faculty Promotion
Daniel Kwon
Associate Professor of Clinical Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery
Aaron Rothbart
Clinical Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (Clinician Educator)
Debra Schrader
Clinical Associate Professor of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery (Clinician Educator)
Community Outreach
The OHNS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee hosted under-represented minority students from USC’s Bridging the Gaps Program (BTG) and Summer Program in Diabetes and Obesity Research (SPIDOR), providing hands-on learning in otolaryngology, career guidance, and a tour of our labs.
Our DEI Committee joined the Keck La Voz y La Comunidad Hispana/Latinx Community Health Fair. Our faculty, residents, and medical students provided head and neck screenings and promoted health awareness to local community members.
Our faculty and staff participated in the Walk4Hearing at Long Beach. The event drew over 300 participants from diverse backgrounds to raise awareness for the hearing-loss community.
The OHNS DEI Committee volunteered at the Los Angeles Mission. The team packed 115 food boxes distributed to local families in the Los Angeles area in need of food during the holiday season.
Our faculty, staff, and MS-SLP student volunteers had a great time at the LA Times Festival of Books, spreading awareness on hearing health, childhood literacy, and otolaryngology services available.
The team at USC Voice Center took part in the Walk for Talk to raise awareness about complex voice disorders and to support the community!
Connect With Us
USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology –
Head and Neck Surgery
Academic Office:
1537 Norfolk Street, Suite 5800
Los Angeles, CA 90033
(323) 442-5790
Our ability to conduct groundbreaking research, develop state-of-the-art technology, and improve the standard of treatment and care is significantly enhanced by philanthropic contributions from our grateful patients, supportive community members, and dedicated friends like you.
Your generosity plays a vital role in ensuring we can continue our research initiatives, provide exceptional patient care, and advance our educational programs. We invite you to consider making a meaningful gift today to support these essential efforts.
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