The UPMC Voice Center strives to provide the most comprehensive fellowships available to otolaryngologists in the country. Both programs are only available for physicians.
Laryngology Fellowship
This 12-month fellowship is a clinical training program encompassing all aspects of care of the larynx, pharynx and upper esophagus. Fellows have the opportunity to extend the program if pursuing NIH funded research.
Specific aspects of the program include:
- Cold knife and phonomicrosurgery for benign and malignant lesions
- Laryngeal framework surgery and rehabilitation of the paralyzed vocal fold
- Laryngeal airway reconstruction
- Laryngeal botox
- Diagnostic laryngeal EMG
- In-office laryngeal procedures (injections, bronchoscopy, biopsies, KTP laser, transnasal esophagoscopy)
- Diagnosis and treatment of swallowing disorders
Fellows will also have "hands-on" exposure to multidisciplinary voice care including voice and singing therapy.
- Faculty Larngology Clinic: 2 days/week
- Fellow's Voice Clinic (under faculty supervision): .5 day/week
- Swallowing Clinic: .5 day/week
- Operating Room: 1 day/week
- Educational Time (grand rounds, voice rounds, planning meetings): 1 day/week
The fellow also serves as a consult service attending once a week which requires about 1-2 hours in the late afternoon on the assigned day.
Voice rounds are an opportunity each Friday morning to have a laryngology-specific educational session. The laryngology fellow and resident currently rotating on the Laryngology service will be asked periodically to give a talk on a subject of his/her choice or one chosen by the faculty. These lectures alternate every other week with discussions on clinical cases or literature reviews. The fellow should be prepared to pull articles from the fellow reading list--approximately 100 of the most pertinient articles to future laryngologists - or elsewhere and discuss them with the group.
It is expected that fellows will leave this program with the confidence and skill to practice laryngology anywhere, at the highest level. An additional year of basic science or clinical research is encouraged but not required.
Care of the Professional Voice Fellowship
This 9 to 12 month fellowship opportunity provides experience in:
- Multidisciplinary voice care
- Acoustic and aerodynamic evaluation of voice
- Multitude of different voice therapy programs/techniques
- Interpretation of flexible and rigid endoscopic laryngeal imaging
