As members of the Brain in Swallowing and Communication Lab, students have the opportunity to observe with Dr. Paul C. Bryson, MD, Director of the Cleveland Clinic Voice Center and Head of the Section of Laryngology, and Michelle Adessa, BM, MS, CCC-SLP, Clinical Speech-Language Pathologist. Bridget Petitti, a BiSC Lab research assistant and graduate student in the Communication Sciences program at Case Western Reserve University, describes her experience:

“Observing Dr.Bryson and Ms. Adessa at the Cleveland Clinic’s Voice Institute provided a unique and enriching educational opportunity. The patients that I observed throughout the day were visiting with a range of diagnoses and histories, including medialization thyroplasty procedure follow-up visits, tracheostomy changes, incomplete velopharyngeal closure, hypophonia, and dysphonia. The majority of patients received endoscopies, namely the procedure in which a flexible camera is inserted through the nose to provide a direct view of the nasopharynx, oropharynx, and larynx in real-time. Where applicable, Dr. Bryson and Ms. Adessa explained the patient’s condition and prognosis, highlighting the importance of multidisciplinary teamwork in providing care, while also providing valuable insight into the specialized study of voice disorders and their associated treatments. Observation is a valuable way to see the implementation and application of graduate coursework, as well as to appreciate the topicality of the research we are doing in the BiSC lab.”