View in browser

Fall 2024

As the Interim Chair of the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of California, San Diego, it is my pleasure to share the many ways in which our team serves our patients and our community and deliver discoveries that improve the lives of patients all over the world.  In addition to providing nationally recognized clinical care across all subspecialties, we are innovating ways to understand and treat of diseases of the head and neck, offering over 25 active clinical trials, 

receiving over $5M in annual external grant  funding in 2024 with over $19M total awarded funds, as well as publishing over 100 publications annually including high impact publications that define new ways to understand, diagnose, and treat disorders including COVID 19, head and neck cancer, swallowing dysfunction, facial paralysis, hearing loss, inflammatory sinus disease, trauma, and others.  None of this would be possible without our extraordinary trainees in our Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery residency, subspecialty and research fellowships, and doctoral candidates in audiology, who are the foundation of our highly collaborative research and learning community at UC San Diego, one of the highest impact biomedical research enterprises in the world located in the third largest biotechnology hub in the US.

It is our commitment to provide expert clinical care, develop the practice changing new treatments of tomorrow, and train the leaders who will continue our journey to serve our local communities and patients across the world.  We invite you to join us on this journey.

Joseph A. Califano III, MD

Interim Chair, Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery

Professor and Iris and Matthew Strauss Chancellor’s Endowed Chair in Head and Neck Surgery

Director, Hanna and Mark Gleiberman Head and Neck Cancer Center, Moores Cancer Center

Jeffrey Harris, M.D., Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Otolaryngology, has stepped down from his department leadership role to focus on new endeavors while maintaining his clinical practice, teaching and research. An internationally recognized physician-scientist with over 45 years of service at the institution, Dr. Harris was instrumental in transitioning the Division of Otolaryngology to an academic department last year and has led the department to national recognition for its advanced clinical and surgical care, training and research. Please join us in thanking Dr. Harris for is leadership and commitment to Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at UC San Diego.  

A search for a permanent department chair is currently underway and is anticipated to be finalized in the coming months. Dr. Joseph Califano, the Interim Chair of the department, joined the UC San Diego faculty in 2015 and currently serves as director of the Hanna and Mark Gleiberman Head and Neck Cancer Center, and is an internationally recognized physician-scientist who specializes in head and neck surgical oncology.  

Dr. Harris receiving a certificate as a distinguished speaker commemorating the 200th Anniversary of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Department of Otolaryngology

Led by Director Dr. Phillip Weissbrod, the new UC San Diego Comprehensive Center for Airway, Voice, and Swallowing opened in October 2024. Staffed by faculty including Dr. Daniel Cates and Dr. Andrew Vahabzedeh, as well as a team of expert speech language pathologists, the center offers comprehensive and integrated care for voice and swallowing disorders, as well as state of the art evaluation including professional voice, swallowing rehabilitation, and airway care through an integrated team approach.

Daniel Cates, MD is a board-certified Otolaryngologist – Head and Neck Surgeon with fellowship training in Laryngology. With a subspecialty focus on disorders affecting the larynx and upper aerodigestive tract, Dr. Cates is dedicated to helping patients improve their quality of life by restoring essential functions like voice, breathing, and swallowing. His advanced fellowship training in the care of the professional voice equips him to provide specialized care for patients, including singers, speakers, and others who rely on their voices for their profession. In his clinical practice, Dr. Cates is known for the special care he takes with each patient.

He understands the vital role that voice, swallowing, and breathing play in a person’s well-being, and he strives to provide individualized care plans tailored to each patient’s unique needs. Whether managing chronic conditions or offering surgical solutions, Dr. Cates prioritizes preserving and improving his patients' quality of life, ensuring they receive the best care to restore their everyday functions and confidence. He has expertise in the treatment of vocal fold lesions, spasmodic dysphonia, vocal fold paralysis, subglottic stenosis, Zenker’s diverticulum, complex swallowing problems, gender-affirming voice needs, and many others.   

Dr. Cates is deeply committed to improving patient outcomes through both clinical care and cutting-edge research. His work has been published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, where he explores innovative techniques to treat vocal fold paralysis, airway stenosis, and enhance voice and swallowing rehabilitation for those who have undergone treatment for head and neck cancers. He has been awarded several grants for his work, and he regularly presents at national conferences. Through his research, Dr. Cates continues to advance the field, ensuring that patients benefit from the latest scientific developments in Laryngology. 

Dr. Cates completed his fellowship in Laryngology and Care of the Professional Voice at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco. He earned his medical degree from the University of Illinois. He completed his residency training at the University of California, Davis, where he also practiced for 6 years prior to joining the faculty here at UCSD. Outside the clinic and operating room, he spends time with his wife and daughter and strives to take advantage of all the natural beauty, arts, music, and culture San Diego has to offer.  

Dr. Jesse Qualliotine and team successfully performed, for a patient with a rare tumor, a total upper and lower jaw reconstruction using a subperiosteal maxillary implant, fibula free flap for mandible, and 3D printed upper and lower teeth. This marks one of the first procedures of its kind to be completed in the world.

It is a pleasure to share with you that Dr. David Hom has been selected as a recipient of the Exemplary Professionalism in the Clinical Learning Environment Award by the UC San Diego School of Medicine. This new award recognizes exceptional commitment to professionalism, integrity, and ethical leadership in the clinical learning environment. Dr. Hom’s “dedication to creating a positive, supportive, and respectful space for learners, colleagues, and patients alike has made a profound impact on the culture of our institution.” 

Led by Rick Friedman, MD, PhD, and Marc Schwartz, MD,the multidisciplinary team of specialists and researchers in the UCSD Acoustic Neuroma Program continue to work in concert to advance treatment options and deliver exceptional clinical care, performing over 1000 operations since 2018.  The acoustic neuroma program continues to be the highest volume center in the nation and leads the nation in clinical outcomes. 

Congratulations to Kevin Thomas Brumund, MD, Joseph A. Califano, III, MD, Charles Coffey, MD, Adam DeConde, MD, David B. Hom, MD, FACS, Deborah Watson, MD, Philip Weissbrod, MD, Carol H. Yan, MD. These outstanding physicians were recognized among San Diego County's best doctors by their peers. Congratulations to our 2024 Top Docs! 

The National Cancer Institute awarded Dr. Theresa Guo a prestigious K08 career development award. This five-year, $1.2 million grant will support her work in “Identification of splice variant derived neo-antigens in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma as targets for tumor vaccine therapy,” with the support of her primary mentors, Dr. Silvio Gutkind and Dr. Hannah Carter, as well as Dr. Joseph Califano and Stephen Schoenberger.

Together with his co-lead Dr. Eric Ahrens, PhD, Dr. Califano has been awarded a 5 year grant to study a novel means of imaging patients in a grant titled: “Imaging tumor-associated macrophages in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma using fluorine-19 MRI.” Together Ahrens and Califano will develop a fast-clearing perfluorocarbon (PFC) nanoemulsion as a 19F MRI tracer to assay tumor associated macrophages in patients, to determine the potential immune responsiveness of tumors to novel immunotherapy agents.

A Tracheostomy Support Device to Reduce Tracheostomy-Related Pressure Injury, Dr. Andrew Vahabzadeh-Hagh 

Assessing Long-Term Quality of Life Concerns Through Survivorship Clinic in Head and Neck Cancer Patients, Dr. Theresa Guo

Differentiation of Bolus Texture During Deglutition via High-Density Surface Electromyography: A Pilot Study, Dr. Philip Weissbrod 

Impact of Applicant Signaling for Otolaryngology Interviews, Dr. Deborah Watson 

Laryngeal Recalibration Therapy Improves Laryngopharyngeal Symptoms in Patients With Suspected Laryngopharyngeal Reflux Disease, Erin Walsh  

Pro-inflammatory markers associated with COVID-19-related persistent olfactory dysfunction, Dr. Carol Yan  

Salivary CD44 and Total Protein Levels to Detect Risk for Oral and Oropharyngeal Cancer Recurrence: A Nonrandomized Clinical Trial, Dr. Joseph Califano 

Temporal Development of Depression and Anxiety in a Large Facial Palsy Cohort, Dr. Jacqueline Greene 

The genetic landscape of age-related hearing loss, Dr. Rick Friedman 

Congratulations to Dr. Nathan for being awarded with the 2024 AAOHNS Women in Otolaryngology Helen F. Krause, MD Trailblazer Award.

In addition, Dr. Nathan is also being awarded with the 2024 AAOHNS Hall of Distinction recognition!! This is an incredible honor, and a quick perusal of past inductees shows a very short list of who’s who in the history of Otolaryngology as a specialty.

A Journey Through the Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery by Alan Feren, MD

UCSD Residency Program 1972 by Don Setliff, MD 

Successfully completed our 5th Annual Southwest Hands-on Boot Camp at UCSD sponsored by the Society of University Otolaryngology entitled "Effective Responses to Otolaryngology Emergencies.”

All 11 Southwest programs came (UCLA, USC, Cedars Sinai, UCI, Loma Linda, Mayo-Arizona, Univ. of Arizona, UNLV, Univ. of New Mexico, US Naval Medical Center and UCSD) plus the Lehigh VHN program from Allentown, Penn with their residents, visiting faculty and our UCSD faculty. 

UCSD Head and Neck Surgery co-hosted a CME conference with UCSF. “Advances in Multi-Disciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Care” focused on interdisciplinary management of head and neck. Course chairs included Dr. Joseph Califano, Dr. Theresa Guo, Liza Blumenfeld and Kristen Linnemeyer-Risser.

Earned theBest Resident Basic Science Research Paper Award at the American Head and Neck Society (AHNS) Annual Meeting in Chicago, IL, in May 2024. His podium presentation, "Characterization of the Primary Tumor-Sentinel Node ImmunoMigratome," demonstrated the pivotal role of dendritic cell trafficking in successful immunoradiotherapy responses.

Gave an oral presentation, “Hearing Status in Sporadic Vestibular Schwannoma is Associated with Differential Gene Expression,” at the American Neurotology Association 59th Annual Fall Meeting in Miami, FL.