For immediate release: June 22, 2012
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School of Medicine establishes Nevada's first otolaryngology residency training program in Las Vegas

Two residents begin training in July

LAS VEGAS, Nev.— The University of Nevada School of Medicine has successfully received approval for establishing Nevada’s first residency training program for otolaryngology and earned a three-year accreditation for that program from the American Council on Graduate Medical Education.

The five-year residency training program in ear, nose and throat surgery begins at the School of Medicine’s partner hospitals, University Medical Center and Mountain View, and various surgery centers across Las Vegas, in July.

Following a nationwide search through the National Residency Match Program, two highly-ranked residents are joining the program: Alycia Spinner, M.D., joins as a first-year resident from Mercer University and Jennifer Mitchell, M.D., Ph.D., comes to Nevada as a second-year resident, transferring from the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio.

One candidate will be added each year until the program is full with five residents, graduating one per year beginning in 2017.

The otolaryngology program resides within the School of Medicine Department of Surgery’s ENT division. William A. Zamboni, M.D., professor and chairman of Department of Surgery said: “This is an example of the Department of Surgery's commitment to create new training programs in the surgical subspecialties so that School of Medicine students will have the opportunity to stay and train in Nevada.”

The new program is led by Robert C. Wang, M.D., professor of surgery and chief of otolaryngology, who is Harvard University and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center trained and has more than 25 years of academic and clinical experience. It will follow American Council on Graduate Medical Education program standards. The training program provides residents with education in the comprehensive evaluation, as well as medical and surgical management of patients of all ages having diseases and disorders of the ears, upper respiratory and upper alimentary systems and related structures, and the head and neck.

“This is the culmination of an eight-year project,” said Wang, adding that faculty were recruited and hired in that timeframe to support the residency program.

In addition to Wang’s expertise in head and neck oncology, laryngology, use of robotic surgical devices and thyroid/parathyroid surgery, Dr. Matthew Ng, a USC and Johns Hopkins University fellowship-trained neuro-otologist and Dr. T.J. O-Lee, a Loma Linda University and Stanford University fellowship-trained pediatric otolaryngologist, complete the division’s full-time faculty. Dr. Paul Johnson, an experienced general otolarynologist, will be joining the faculty full time, as well as Dr. Joseph Ta, who completed a skull-base surgery fellowship at the University of Michigan.

Wang reached out to community physicians in Las Vegas to get them involved in the new residency and said he has been well received and supported for his efforts. Many of these community physicians have volunteered to teach the residents.

“Our emphasis is on top-notch education for the new generation of otolaryngologists for Nevada and reversing the trend in Nevada of sending patients out-of-state for treatment. We now attract tertiary level referrals from Utah, California and Arizona to our practices,” Wang said.

Miriam Bar-on, M.D., the School of Medicine’s associate dean of graduate medical education who oversees all residency programs, said she is particularly thrilled with the establishment of this highly competitive residency program.

“The addition of this new program increases the portfolio of surgical specialty training programs offered by the School of Medicine and our affiliated hospitals to patients in the Las Vegas community,” she said.

Currently, there are 1.8 otolaryngologists per 100,000 people in Nevada; the comparable number for the U.S. is 3.3.

The University of Nevada School of Medicine, a research-intensive, community-based, statewide medical school, has served Nevada for more than 40 years as its only public medical school. Our mission is improving the health of Nevada’s diverse population through world-class biomedical research, an innovative curriculum integrating basic and clinical sciences, and highly competitive residency and fellowship programs that complement a statewide network of urban and rural clinical facilities. Through targeted growth and investment in research, clinical services and education, we are a resource for improving health care regionally and across the country.