Message From the Chair
Among the jewels of our Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Department are our head and neck oncologic surgery and head and neck endocrine surgery practices, which have expanded in recent years. Let’s start with the esteemed chief of service, Patrick Ha, MD, who is also editor-in-chief of the journal, Head and Neck.
Any discussion about this segment of the practice merits acknowledging the facial plastic and reconstructive surgery (FPRS) division, which Daniel Knott, MD, heads. Dr. Knott is associate editor for FPRS for Laryngoscope. The reconstruction team is instrumental in our ability to deliver the highest level possible of post-surgical function. Their success rate is superior, and they demonstrate amazing creativity with flap reconstruction techniques.
After surgery, rehabilitation is key. Clark Rosen, MD, heads the laryngology division, with Sarah Schneider, MA, leading the speech and language pathology rehabilitation team. They are both incredibly skilled and diligent. The work of everyone involved is contributing to lower morbidity and higher quality of life. In fact, as reported by our chief medical officer, recent internal hospital data shows that our UCSF team has lower length of stay rates compared to national subspecialty standards. Way to go!
The newest addition to our head and neck oncologic surgery roster is Ilya Likhterov, MD, who you can read about on page 4 of this issue of Head’s Up! Ilya is a unique individual, who emigrated from St. Petersburg, Russia to New York at age 11 and needed to become fluent in English quickly! He excelled at school and college and graduated from Weill Cornell Medical College. After training in OHNS here at UCSF he went on to complete the Urken fellowship at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. Ilya remained in New York as both an ablative and microvascular surgeon, but he moved to Minneapolis just before the start of the pandemic. When I learned that Ilya missed the academic environment, I was able to recruit him back to UCSF. He is a fabulous surgeon and teacher, and he is a fantastic and dedicated physician. The next time you have a tertiary referral, think of Ilya!
Other fine surgeons include Mary Xu, MD, and Kathy Wai, MD. Mary is our head and neck oncologic surgeon at Zuckerberg San Francisco General. Kathy will be pivoting from an immunology research focus under the guidance of Matt Spitzer, PhD, to a more focused clinical role. Mary and Kathy are also ablative surgeons with head and neck endocrine surgery expertise as well as microvascular surgeons.
On the subject of research, our department is heavily involved in immunology research with the Spitzer Lab, nano-particle research with the Jun Lab, and signaling research with the Grandis-Johnson Lab. We participate in many clinical trials, and we have a fabulous collaboration with our Tumor Board. That collaboration allows us to leverage UCSF’s expertise in radiation oncology, pathology, imaging, and novel therapeutics.
Finally, I want to highlight two new surgical facilities that will open soon. One is at the Berkeley Outpatient Center at 3100 San Pablo Avenue, and the other is at our new Peninsula Outpatient Center at 250 California Avenue in Burlingame. Wherever your patient lives in the Bay Area, remember that UCSF facilities are close by!
Warmly,
Andrew H. Murr, MD, FACS
Professor and Chair
UCSF Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery