More than 50 surgeons from around the globe gathered at Massachusetts Eye and Ear for the Harvard International Endoscopic Ear Surgery course, which is one of the only continuing medical education (CME) courses in the United States exclusively dedicated to this advanced technique.

Co-directed by Harvard faculty Dr. Michael Cohen and Dr. Daniel Lee, the course offers a broad overview of the current state of endoscopic ear surgery using a mix of didactic lectures, panel discussions, live surgery observations, and hands-on dissections in the Joseph B. Nadol, Jr., MD, Otolaryngology Surgical Training Laboratory. With help from course faculty and the lab manager, Jean Phillips, the hands-on sessions are equipped with high definition endoscopic video systems that allow participants to experience, practice, and record endoscopic techniques developed at Mass. Eye and Ear and by surgeons around the world.

“There has been an increasing interest in endoscopic ear surgery worldwide over the past few years and Mass. Eye and Ear was one of the first centers to adopt it into clinical practice,” said Dr. Cohen, Assistant Professor of Otolaryngology at Harvard Medical School. “This was the basis for us deciding to offer this course. We want participants to gain a better understanding of how endoscopes can augment existing surgical techniques for managing ear disease and to be able to introduce the endoscope into their surgical practices.”

The next Endoscopic Ear Surgery course is planned for November 2018.