Resident Research

We provide mentored training in research and scholarship to individuals during several phases of their educational and professional training to develop independent and sustainable academic careers in basic, clinical, and/or translational research. Trainees include undergraduate and graduate students, medical students, post-doctoral fellows, and surgical residents and fellows in Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery.

Research Training

Research training is supported by several NIH training grants. In particular, one long-standing training grant from the National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders at the NIH supports each resident to conduct mentored research full-time, for a total of 1.3 or 2.3 years, depending upon the research track they choose.

Resident trainees select and conduct research projects based on their interests. Projects can reside within established areas of research in the Department, described above, or they can address new avenues of inquiry via collaborations with mentors outside of the Department.

It is our goal is to provide trainees with the skills they need to develop an independent and sustainable research program in areas relevant to Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery with the ability to:

  • Design and execute hypothesis-driven research
  • Effectively present findings to the public, in oral and written forms
  • Write applications for research funding

Many clinical research trainees earn a certificate or masters degree in clinical research methods and collaborative approaches to address a wide variety of research problems.

Training Sites and Facilities

The Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center and the Health Sciences Building at UW have several laboratories conducting basic science and translational research. Within these sites, there are state-of-the-art imaging centers, surgical suites, tissue culture facilities, histology and microtomy suites, equipment for genetic and molecular analyses, electrophysiological measurements in vivo and in vitro, large-scale drug screening, and detailed auditory and vestibular functional testing.

The Otolaryngology Outcomes Research Group performs clinical research and is based in the UW Comparative Effectiveness, Cost & Outcomes Research Center, an interdisciplinary, multi-school clinical research “laboratory.” These Centers are closely affiliated with the UW School of Public Health and UW Institute of Translational Health.

The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center houses laboratories for basic science and translational research, focusing on head and neck cancer, epithelial tumor biology, and viral biology as it relates to carcinogenesis, immunotherapy, and population studies.

There are innumerable other research facilities where departmental and trainee research is performed. For example, Seattle Children’s Hospital houses research programs on vascular anomalies, pediatric communications disorders, and others. The Department of Electrical Engineering at UW houses an engineering research laboratory studying robotic surgical techniques. The Research & Development (R&D) Program at the VA Puget Sound Health Care Center houses numerous research programs and project, and Harborview Medical Center houses the Harborview Injury Prevention & Research Center and many other research programs.

Resident Research Highlights

Sebastian Jara, MD

CPAP & Sexual QOL Study

Sebastian Jara, MD

Sleep apnea is a common disorder associated with numerous negative health consequences, including reduced sexual function and quality of life. There is growing evidence that treatment of sleep apnea with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) may improve these adverse consequences. The goal of this study was to evaluate the impact of long-term CPAP therapy on sexual quality of life in a group of men and women with sleep apnea. The study included 182 men and women with newly diagnosed obstructive sleep apnea, each of whom were prescribed a CPAP. Patients completed a quality of life survey, which included questions on sexual quality of life, at their initial clinic visit and again one year later. Changes in sexual quality of scores over time were compared between CPAP users and non-users. When comparing the 72 patients that used a CPAP nightly to the 110 that did not, an overall improvement in sexual quality of life was observed in patients that used their CPAP compared to those that didn’t, even after accounting for other factors that can also affect sexual quality of life. When subgroup analysis by sex was performed, a large improvement in sexual quality of life was noticed for the women in the study. Surprisingly, men in the study experienced little-to-no improvement in sexual quality of life.

These findings add to a large body of evidence that CPAP improves overall health and quality of life in both men and women with sleep apnea. Because sleep apnea is more common men, there are fewer studies, especially those assessing sexual dysfunction, in women. However, there’s growing recognition that women, too, are affected by sleep apnea and can benefit from CPAP. Our findings demonstrate that improved sexual quality of life is one of the many health benefits that comes with CPAP treatment for women. While this study showed no improvements in sexual quality of life for men, CPAP has been shown to have numerous health benefits in men and should still be encouraged. Our hope is that the findings of this study will help motivate patients of both sexes who sleep poorly to seek evaluation for sleep apnea as treatment can have a wide-range of health benefits, including improved sexual quality of life.

This study was published in JAMA Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery and was featured on several online media outlets, including CNN.com.

Citation: Jara SM, Hopp ML, Weaver EM. Association of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Treatment With Sexual Quality of Life in Patients With Sleep Apnea: Follow-up Study of a Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. Published online May 24, 2018. doi:10.1001/jamaoto.2018.0485

Article link: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaotolaryngology/fullarticle/2681628

CNN.com link: https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/24/health/sleep-apnea-cpap-sex-study/index.html

Grace Wandell, M.D., M.S

Defining the Human Level Performance of Perceptual Screening for Laryngeal Mass from Voice

Grace Wandell, MD, MS

With support from faculty at the University of Washington & Emory University, Dr. Grace Wandell’s research has focused on developing and clinically validating a machine learning algorithm which screens voices for laryngeal masses from voice. Dr. Anthony Law, a UW grad and current faculty member and laryngologist at Emory, developed this machine learning algorithm which utilizes a neural network that analyzes spectrograms. In the large retrospective population the model was trained on, it performed with a sensitivity of 92% and specificity of 84%. Together, they have refined and studied how this algorithm performs in a clinical population and compared it and others to how well experts (such as speech therapists) and general medicine physicians can “hear” a mass in the voice. Testing this model in a clinical population of >300 patients, its sensitivity was 71% and specificity was 84%. Although there was this drop in performance in a real-word scenario, this out performed both speech therapy experts and general medicine physicians (see poster). Through this project, they hope to enable primary care providers and patients to identify laryngeal cancers earlier and get them appropriately treated.