Excerpted from www.entnet.org press release
September 30, 2015

Dallas, TX—Sujana S. Chandrasekhar, MD, is the new president of the American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) and its Foundation. Elected by AAO-HNS members, Dr. Chandrasekhar will serve a one-year term leading the Academy’s nearly 12,000 members who specialize in the treatment of the ears, nose, throat, and related structures of the head and neck.

“Change is happening rapidly in healthcare, and I think the challenges we are facing as physicians and surgeons are actually opportunities for us to have a strong voice in shaping the future of our field,” said Dr. Chandrasekhar. “As the daughter of an internist and an otolaryngologist, the Academy has long held a special place in my life. Service to patients and colleagues is in my blood. I definitely see my term as president as an opportunity to be a positive influence on younger otolaryngologists who are starting to fill leadership roles.”

Dr. Chandrasekhar is Director of New York Otology, Director of Neurotology at the James J. Peters Veterans Administration Medical Center, an otologist and neurotologist at the New York Head and Neck Institute, and Clinical Associate Professor at Hofstra North Shore-LIJ School of Medicine. She is also Medical Director of the Vestibular Disorders Evaluation Clinic at the Bronx VA Hospital, and is currently building the Comprehensive Balance Center at Lenox Hill Hospital/Manhattan Eye Ear and Throat Hospital.

Her clinical interests include the management of disorders related to hearing, balance, tinnitus, facial nerves, and skull base tumors. She has several published papers in otology and otolaryngology, including a landmark study on sudden hearing loss.

Dr. Chandrasekhar has made significant contributions to the work of the AAO-HNS/F as co-chair of the Foundation’s clinical practice guideline on sudden hearing loss, chair of the guideline for improving voice outcomes after thyroidectomy, and as a methodologist for the guidelines on tinnitus and adult sinusitis. She previously served as chair of the Board of Governors. Among her awards are two Distinguished Service Awards from the AAO-HNS, the Helen Krause Trailblazer Award from the Academy’s Section for Women in Otolaryngology, and the Physician Mentor Recognition Award from the American Medical Association Women Physicians Section.

Read more…

Do you suffer from motion sickness? An article published on BBC.com and featuring our very own Dr. Sujana Chandrasekhar does an excellent job of explaining motion sickness and offering effective solutions.

“Other tips are to always place yourself in a spot where your eyes see the same motion that your body and inner ears feel; for instance, it’s best to sit in the front seat of a car and focus on distant scenery, recommends Sujana Chandrasekhar, director of the Comprehensive Balance Center in New York.”

The search for an effective cure for motion sickness

Excerpt from BBC.com, August 17, 2015

It’s a form of sickness that affects about one in three people. We can’t predict who will succumb or when. And there’s no cure, discovers Katia Moskvitch.

Motion sickness can seem like a minor ailment to those blessed with a sturdy constitution. “People don’t die from motion sickness,” says Bill Yates, a neuroscientist at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania. But for sufferers it can be a real problem – particularly since the modern world doles up motion sickness-inducing scenarios on an almost daily basis: planes hit turbulence; cars swerve suddenly; ships list on a rough sea.

The condition can even impact our career choices. At 15, all I wanted to be was an astronaut. Acute motion sickness stepped in and said ‘nope’: I realised I was never going to adapt to the weightless interior of a spacecraft. Recently I had the chance to confirm my hunch. Strapped to the inner ring of an aerotrim, or ‘human gyroscope,’ with all its three rings rotating around different axes, I felt like my brain was spinning in one direction while my innards were pulled elsewhere.

But what exactly causes motion sickness? And is there any hope for a treatment?

In 1977, Michel Treisman, a psychologist at the University of Oxford, suggested that motion sickness might be an evolutionary response to food poisoning. His idea was that if your taste buds or the gut’s chemosensory system don’t spot a toxin in a meal, the dizziness and vomiting could be a fallback system.

That remains to be proven. The most popular explanation for motion sickness, however, is that it arises from a visual-vestibular mismatch. In simple terms, the central nervous system receives conflicting messages from the body’s balance receptors: the inner ears (vestibular system), the eyes (visual system), and the muscles down the back all the way to your feet (proprioceptive system). Basically, when you’re in a car or a plane, your inner ear signals that you’re moving, but your eyes say that you’re not – because your body is motionless in relation to its immediate environment, such as your seat, the floor, or the seat in front.

Read the full article on BBC.com: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20150814-the-search-for-an-effective-cure-for-motion-sickness

CBS News speaks with Dr. Chandrasekar about the new guidelines for treating tinnitus (ringing in the ears) which were issued in December 2014 by The American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS). Dr. Chandrasekhar is currently President-Elect of AAO-HNS and co-author of the new tinnitus guidelines.

Excerpted from the article:

More than 50 million Americans suffer from tinnitus, or ringing in the ears. Experts say it’s the most common service-related disability among U.S. military veterans. Yet many people remain unsure what can be done about it.

74-year-old Michael Stern has lived with the problem for a decade, ever since he woke up from an operation with painful noise in his ears. “It feels as if your head is going to explode,” he told CBS News.

Now the nation’s largest group of ear, nose and throat specialists, the American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, has come out with new guidelines for treating the condition, based on the latest research.

The group says many cases are minor or go away on their own, but about 20 percent of patients need some type of medical intervention.

That should start with a “targeted history and physical exam,” says Dr. Sujana Chandresekhar, a co-author of the new treatment guidelines. “You need to do a hearing test when it is appropriate, you need to counsel the patient that there are plenty of choices for them of ways to manage their problems.”

The Academy recommends against routine scans and MRIs to diagnose the condition. It says patients who also suffer from hearing loss may benefit from a hearing aid evaluation.

The complete story from CBS News can be accessed here: New guidelines for treating tinnitus, or ringing in the ears

“Dr. Chandrasekhar is the third woman and the first person of Indian descent to hold the office of president-elect of the 12,000-member organization. Previously she served as chair of the AAO-HNS Board of Governors.”

Excerpted from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston website:

AAO-HNS President-Elect Speaks At 2015 Otorhinolaryngology Frontiers

Sujana S. Chandrasekhar, MD, FACS, FAAO-HNS, president-elect of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS), was the guest speaker at 2015 Otorhinolaryngology Frontiers, which highlighted research endeavors and emerging technology in the diagnosis and management of common otolaryngologic clinical problems. More than 70 physicians and other healthcare professionals attended the event, which was held on June 27, 2015, at the Brown Foundation Institute of Molecular Medicine at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and sponsored by the Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at UTHealth Medical School.

Dr. Chandrasekhar is the third woman and the first person of Indian descent to hold the office of president-elect of the 12,000-member organization. Previously she served as chair of the AAO-HMS Board of Governors.

Read the full announcement here: https://med.uth.edu/orl/newsletter/aao-hns-president-elect-to-speaks-at-2015-otorhinolaryngology-frontiers/

The American Medical Association -Women Physicians Section (AMA-WPS) has selected Dr. Sujana Chandrasekhar as a 2013 honoree of its Physician Mentor Recognition Program.

Dr. Shannon P. Pryor, Chairman of the AMA-WPS stated that “Dr. Chandrasekhar is a true role model for women in medicine. She has worked tirelessly within our specialty of otolaryngology-head and neck surgery to promote the development of new leaders, and to ensure that the next generation of otolaryngologists will be actively engage in improving not only their clinical practice, but also improving the environment in which they practice.”

In accepting this wonderful honor, Dr. Chadrasekhar said “Both being a mentor and being mentored have allowed me to develop team-building skills. Although the concept of a team comes naturally to me, the mentorship experience has enabled me to recognize and highlight the strengths (and weaknesses) of members of my team, so that I can encourage the former, and help the person address the latter. Leaders recognize their own strengths and weaknesses, and should always be aware of how much they learn from others.”

More information on the Physician Mentor Recognition Program and Dr. Chandrasekhar’s selection can be found by clicking here:  http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/about-ama/our-people/member-groups-sections/women-physicians-section/mentor-recognition.page?

New York magazine recently named Sujana S. Chandrasekhar, MD among one of the best in the New York metropolitan area in its 16th annual “Best Doctors” issue.

New York Magazine Best Doctors 2013

Castle Connolly Medical Ltd. 

A New York City research and information company, Castle Connolly Medical Ltd., publishes an annual guidebook titled Top Doctors: New York Metro Area, which lists those whom Castle Connolly has determined to be in the top 10 percent of the region’s physicians—nearly 5,900 in all. For the past sixteen years, Castle Connolly has been providing New York Magazine with a shorter version of this list for the magazine’s Best Doctors issue. Space prohibits New York from publishing the full list; this year, the doctors on our list number 1,198.

1. Clinical Practice Guideline : Improving Voice Outcomes after Thyroid Surgery Otolaryngology — Head and Neck Surgery 2013 148: S1 DOI: 10.1177/0194599813487301
2. Eloy JA, Svider PF, Kovalerchik O, Baredes S, Kalyoussef E, Chandrasekhar SS  Gender Differences in Successful NIH Grant Funding in Otolaryngology. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2013 Apr 12.
3. Eloy JA, Svider PF, Cherla DV, Diaz L, Kovalerchik O, Mauro KM, Baredes S, Chandrasekhar SS. Gender disparities in research productivity among 9,952 academic physicians. Laryngoscope. 2013 Apr 8. Read more »

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Dr. Sujana Chandrasekhar had the opportunity to participate in an article for the Wall Street Journal. WSJ New Views of Motion Sickness

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