Outreach

Outreach

At Vanderbilt Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, our team is committed to giving back to the local Nashville community, sharing knowledge and expertise with fellow otolaryngologists across the nation, and spearheading international global outreach efforts.

Our program has a celebrated history of paying it forward. We are proud of our Nashville roots and take an opportunity to participate in local events. Our global outreach commitment is an opportunity for faculty and fellows to offer free medical care to underprivileged communities throughout the world. Additionally, our outreach team trains local physicians to help expand the scope of care they can provide patients in the community.

  • The Vanderbilt Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery team is an active member of the Nashville community. From spirit days with the Nashville Predators to hosting local families for the annual Microtia and Atresia Educational Conference and Ear Community Summer Picnic, we take our commitment to the community seriously.

    Each April, a free head and neck cancer screening day takes place in the Odess Clinic. We are an invested community partner and dedicated to raising awareness about Otolaryngology conditions and treatment resources available at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

    To stay up-to-date on current community events, follow Vanderbilt Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery on Twitter.

  • Vanderbilt Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery is committed to global health. Our program has an over-20-year history of traveling to low-resourced areas of the world to provide integrated medical support and care to patients. On each outreach mission trip, our expert team works with local physicians and surgeons—in coordination with local ENT societies, local academic residency programs, and host hospitals—to train them in new surgical techniques while providing free medical care to community members.

    ​Every year, several humanitarian trips are led by Vanderbilt Otolaryngology physicians. Countries visited have included: Bolivia, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, Nicaragua, Nigeria, the Philippines, and Uganda. 

    During these trips, residents and medical students provide integral support and care for patients as well as pursuing research, if desired. Projects they have worked on have varied from a physician-extender program in rural Kenya (described in this video: Kenya Hear Me) to setting up electronic medical record systems at host hospitals to provide a way to do some follow-up after returning home. Residents of all years are invited to attend these trips, although it is typically easiest for residents on research blocks to take advantage of these incredible learning and service opportunities. Several residents have also utilized their six-month research block to work in low-resourced areas of Africa and Latin America. Another resident created a relationship with the World Health Organization in Geneva. If a resident is specifically interested in global health, we do everything we can to make sure and allow them to have a full immersive experience and exposure during their residency.

    Recently, in collaboration with the Vanderbilt Institute of Global Health, we have partnered with other residency programs on campus to create the Vanderbilt Collaborative for Global Health Equity. This is a year-long global health curriculum taught by global health experts among Vanderbilt’s community which aims to build knowledge, skill, and attitudes expected of physicians competent in global health work. Residents that complete this curriculum would graduate from their program with a GME level certificate in Global Health Equity. One of the ultimate goals of this program is at the culmination of the year-long curriculum, residents that participate would have a month-long global health rotation in a low-resourced setting,

    See the publications list below for more details. For more information on trips to Haiti, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda, please visit More Than Medicine. For more information on other global efforts at Vanderbilt, please visit the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health.

  • Scott Stephan, MD at the Microtia and Atresia Educational Conference
  • Melissa Tumblin from the Ear Community with musicians at the Microtia Picnic
  • Nurse practitioners Anne Williford, Filipina Schnabel, and Courtney Zimmerman at Saint Mark’s Healthfair in Manchester, TN
  • Sarah L. Rohde, MD screens a patient at our annual free public head and neck cancer screening at the Odess Head and Neck Cancer Surgery Clinic