Face to Face

In the course of advancing resident education in a new department in the largest medical center in the world, among generations of experts, visionaries and leaders, my goals must be intentional, well considered and ultimately successful. Like in all areas of health care, there will be few opportunities for trial and error. Errors can mean setbacks and years wasted to unravel and rework the infrastructure – and, importantly, missed opportunities. We now have a blank canvas to be the innovators of education in our field. As such, we have begun to create the foundation for vertical integration and education without boundaries. Education without boundaries: The MITIEverse A first and important observation I made when I became department chair at Houston Methodist is that we had to have more faculty with academic appointments to train residents how to operate. Faculty appointments set standards and rigors for every faculty member to continue to advance their skills across the spectrum of our field. We now have 20 faculty with Weill Cornell Medical College and Houston Methodist Academic Institute appointments. What I have realized now is: Why settle with 20 educators when there are hundreds of academic otolaryngologists across the country? As such, we have already had three visiting professors for our new residency program that just started in July 2022 (Drs. Kofi Boahene – Professor, Johns Hopkins, PJ Wormald – Chair of the University of Adelaide, Jonathan Ting – Chair of Indiana University). We are incorporating the Collaborative Multi-Institutional Otolaryngology Residency Education Program, which are lectures created during COVID-19 by more than 115 Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery faculty across the country (https://sites.usc.edu/ohnscovid/pastvideos/). We have partnered with UTMB Galveston to assist with a multi-institutional otolaryngology simulation center training experience for residents, and we have started our first annual 25-station multi-institutional Endoscopic Sinus and Skull Base surgery training course at Houston Methodist Institute for Technology, Innovation and Education (MITIE) teaching residents from Houston Methodist, Baylor College of Medicine, UT-Houston, and UTMB. This course had eight fellowship-trained rhinologists from all participating institutions along with rhinologists from LSU Shreveport and Indiana University. It was great to see so many different institutions getting together for the sake of education. In MITIE, we are continuing to work on creating a virtual orientation of our department with 3D videos and 360-degree views of facilities, faculty, learners and procedures. In fact, we are on our way to creating an artificial metaverse training environment, which we fondly call our MITIEverse. In addition, we will continue to utilize the newest high-tech 3D surgical models that will allow us to teach specific subspecialties with that specific criterion that needs to be studied and learned. We tested the first 3D surgical models this past month in our Endoscopic Sinus and Skull base Course with very promising results. Eventually, this evolutionary practice will allow us to standardize surgical treatment. Traditional teaching techniques, surgical training in our own operating suites with dedicated Otolaryngology-specific professionals, online lectures, augmented and virtual reality training, visiting professors, translational research and multi-institutional courses utilizing 3D surgical training models and simulation will all play large roles in the way we teach in our new residency program. Watching this evolution has been truly exciting. We have taken the first strokes on our canvas. I hope to continue to chronicle our progress as we color our blank canvas with amazing new ways to teach. Mas Takashima, MD, FACS Professor and Chair Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery Houston Methodist Academic Institute