By Alfred Simental ’95 MBA, FACE, FACS
Chair, Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery

The department of otolaryngology continues to thrive in its mission to train medical students and residents, as well as provide tertiary-level care for the population of Southern California. The residency program was started by George H. Petti Jr. ’60, George D. Chonkich ’60, and Robert Rowe ’62 in 1978. Charles Stewart ’70 and Timothy T. K. Jung ’74 joined in the respective years. The program then began training two residents per year. Now, the department trains four residents per year and is in the process of growing to five residents per year.

Clinical care is provided throughout the hospitals located on the main campus in Loma Linda, including Troesh Medical Center, LLU Children’s Hospital, and Surgical/East Campus Hospitals, which serve as the home base for our clinical service. To support our mission, clinical services are also provided at the Jerry L Pettis VA Hospital, Riverside University Hospital, Loma Linda University Murrieta, Riverside Community Hospital, and Redlands Community Hospital. The residency is led by Christopher A. Church ’96 and Paul Walker, MD, who tirelessly oversee the curriculum and rotations. Baishakhi Choudhury, MD serves as the director of medical student education, allowing exposure to both operative and clinical disorders of the head and neck region.

The department plans to add two additional alumni faculty in the fall, Cedric Thiel ’19 and Hector Perez-RES. Steve Choon-Sung Lee ’03 serves as the vice chair of the department, providing operational and financial oversight. The department, now among the largest otolaryngology programs in the country, will comprise 27 fellowship-trained clinical faculty and 5 non-clinical, research faculty.

We continue to promote diversity, with women comprising 44% of the faculty and 20% of the residents, all of whom are exceptionally qualified surgeons. The extensive growth has been a natural result of the immense demand for otolaryngology services among the underserved population within Southern California. The department divides extensive clinical duties among its various divisions, which include pediatric otolaryngology, voice/swallowing, oncologic/endocrine, facial plastics/facial nerve reconstruction, otology/neurotology, oncologic/microvascular, and rhinology/skull base surgery. Fellowship training programs are currently available in oncologic and endocrine surgery, rhinology and skull-base surgery, oncologic and microvascular surgery, as well as facial plastics and reconstructive surgery.

To promote whole person care and service, the department continues to support mission trips to Kenya, Honduras, and Hangzhou, China. These trips provide essential care for patients in the involved region and promote service among the medical students, residents, and faculty participants. Brianna Crawley, MD, QI director, traveled in June with several speech pathologists to Kijabe, Kenya, to work with Nathan Peterson, MD, and his wife, Hanna, who reside in Kijabe for approximately 90% of the year. Paul Walker, MD, also participates in taking residents and fellows to Kijabe, where they assist in training the Pan African Association of Christian Surgeons domestic fellows. Hospital Adventista Valle de Angeles has also been our Central American site, hosting several annual trips led by Christopher Church ’96, Paul Walker, MD, Helen Xu, MD, and others. We recently trained Javier Lagos MD, at Loma Linda, and he serves as the only fellowship-trained head and neck surgeon in Honduras. Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital in Hangzhou, China, currently has several of our alumni, including Xaio Mang, MD and Gao Li, MD, with Helen Xu, MD serving as ambassador for this LLU-sponsored site.

Our blessings are innumerable, and God has endowed the department with exceptionally talented and mission-focused faculty and residents. May we continue the healing mission of Jesus Christ in Southern California and abroad.