Research Fellows

Current Fellow

Inderpreet Kaur Khalsa, MS

Preet is a fourth year medical student at UCSF and a Research Fellow for the Children’s Communication Clinic. Preet’s projects focus on better understanding the barriers that families of children with hearing loss face when accessing hearing healthcare and educational supports. She has a special interest in improving care for patients with socioecomonic vulnerabilities and with diverse linguistic backgrounds. Preet collaborates with the CCC team to maintain the RedCap research database and to identify future areas of study to improve patient care. In addition to her research work, Preet directs the SFUSD Research Program which brings hands-on learning about hearing health to local elementary students.

Past Fellows

Michelle Florentine, MD

Michelle is a first-year resident physician at UCSF Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery. During her research year at the Children's Communication Center, she focused on multiple areas of research, including addressing access challenges in children who are deaf of hard-of-hearing, examining racial/ethnic disparities in genetic testing, and evaluating speech and language outcomes and disparities in children with congenital aural atresia, as well as audiologic outcomes in children using bone-anchored hearing devices.

---

Katrin Jaradeh, BS

Katrin is a fourth year medical student at UCSF. During her research year at the Children's Communication Center, Katrin assembled multidisciplinary teams, with Dr. Chan's help, in order to study hearing health in historically underserved and understudied populations, such as immigrants and refugees. She used both qualitative and quantitative approaches in order to report findings on the patient's experience and capture their authentic voice. She also launched a podcast and videocast with ASL interpretations called "Silence: On and Off" where she brings on different guests to discuss the topic of hearing.

Publications:

Bhatia P, Rems-Smario J, Jaradeh K, K Chan D. Childhood Hearing Health and Early Language Exposure: A Culturally Sensitive Approach. Adv Pediatr. 2022 Aug.

Jaradeh K, Liao EN, Chehab LZ, Tebb KP, Florentine MM, Bellfort-Salinas S, Chan DK. Understanding Barriers to Timely Diagnosis and Intervention Among Immigrant Children With Hearing Loss. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2023 Mar 16.

 

Presentations:

"Mixed methods study of factors that impact success of natural-sleep ABR in a diverse patient cohort." Liao, EN; Singh, A; Jaradeh, K; Stephans, J; Chan, DK. In: Society for Ear Nose and Throat Advancement in Children. Dec 1, 2022. Oral presentation.

“Impact of Birthplace on Time to Identification and Intervention of Hearing loss,” Jaradeh, K; Florentine, M; Bellfort-Salinas, S; Chan, D. In: American Society of Pediatric Otolaryngology: April 29-30, 2022. Poster presentation.

“Barriers to Access in Immigrant Families with Children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing” Jaradeh, K; Liao, E; Yaramala, N; Bellfort-Salinas, S; Chan, D. In: Early Hearing Detection and Intervention: March 15, 2022; Virtual. Panel discussion.

---

Elizabeth Liao, BA

Elizabeth is a fourth year medical student at UCSF and applying into Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery. She is passionate about designing better systems and translating best practices into actual patient care for underserved populations. During her research year at the Children's Communication Center, she studied who, when, how, and why a child might fall through the cracks in the care they receive during the screening, diagnosis, and treatment of hearing loss in order to improve care for vulnerable populations.