On Saturday, September 26th, 2020, Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Microtia and Atresia clinic hosted our 5th Annual Microtia and Atresia educational conference. We were hopeful that our annual event would still take place in person, but unfortunately, COVID-19 had other plans for us this year. However, we were still able to host our wonderful event safely while providing an educational 3.5 hour virtual session on all options for Microtia and Atresia with the Vanderbilt Microtia and Atresia clinic staff! Our event was held virtually by and in collaboration with the Ear Community Organization. We had families join from many states, including Canada and China, due to the easy accessibility through this Zoom event.
Thank you to Dr. Ron Eavey for providing an update on Microtia and Atresia, including current genetic research that Vanderbilt, Ear Community and Harvard are working on, along with a brief history of Microtia and Atresia. Thank you to Dr. Scott Stephan for educating us on the latest porous polyethylene implant options for outer ear reconstructive surgery. Thank you to Dr. Marc Bennett for updating us on BAIs, hearing loss and atresiaplasty for hearing loss restoration along with CAM (combined Atresia Microtia) surgery with Dr. Stephan. Thank you to Drs. Brandy Stephens and Margaret McRedmond for educating our attendees on how important audiology is for staying on top of hearing loss with hearing screenings and tests and how bone conduction hearing devices can benefit conductive hearing loss along with tips on how to qualify for insurance coverage for these devices. Thank you to Scott Fiscus for educating our attendees on the option for a prosthetic ear and that this is a wonderful interim or permanent option for so many patients, including cost coverage options for a prosthesis. We were joined by James Hermsen who also share with us about his eyeglasses for Microtia kids!
A very special thank you to Ear Community’s sponsors for helping make this event possible for both VUMC and everyone who attended. Thank you to Cochlear Americas for educating us about Baha 5 and the newly launched Osia bone conduction system. Thank you to Oticon Medical for educating us about the Ponto 3 superpower and the newly launched Ponto 4 bone conduction system. Thank you to MED-EL for educating us about ADHEAR and the BONEBRIDGE bone conduction system. All of these hearing device brands are offered through Vanderbilt University Medical Center at the Hearing and Speech Center and at the Microtia and Atresia clinic.
Every year, the Ear Community Organization selects Microtia and Atresia families to host our events. This year for the Vanderbilt event, we welcomed the Greene Family to host our event. Their son, Charlie Greene, was born with bilateral Microtia and Atresia and has been a patient at VUMC for over two decades and happens to be a musician where he is the lead singer for a popular pop quartet band, called Betcha. We had the amazing opportunity to enjoy a musical performance by Betcha, straight out of Nashville! It was an absolute honor listening to Betcha including Charlie Green (lead vocals), Taylor Dubray (base guitar), Ben Booth (guitar) and Chase Wofford (drums) perform for everyone. The band was scheduled to perform in person for our event, but due to COVID-19, we are thankful that a virtual option was available. Charlie shared a little bit about his journey growing up with Microtia and Atresia and about some of the surgeries he has had for reconstructing his ears and restoring his hearing loss. Charlie was a wonderful role model to all of the families who attended this virtual event.
A special thank you to Melissa Tumblin and Heidi Jeffs of the Ear Community for hosting, managing and making this year’s event possible.
Here are some memories from our virtual event:
