Celebrating Five Years of the Vanderbilt Audiology Journal Club!

Carolyn Smaka:  Today I'm speaking with Gus Mueller at the infamous Ear Inn—the oldest working tavern in NYC.  So, hello there Gus, and cheers!

Gus Mueller: Cheers to you too!  I guess it’s appropriate that we are in an historic place for such an historic meeting as this.

Carolyn:   Right.  A five-year celebration!  It seems like only yesterday that you and I sat down to discuss a new AudiologyOnline feature you would be hosting, Nashville Live! Vanderbilt Audiology's Journal Club - Unplugged.  Obviously, simply judging by the longevity, things have been going well with this little project.   

Gus:  Things are going very well, and the time has gone by quickly.  I recall back then we were discussing what “unplugged” really meant (still working on that), and exactly how this whole thing would play out.  To most, a “live journal club” doesn’t sound too exciting.  But, as I believe I predicted, if you’re working with a group of dynamic audiologists like our team at Vandy, you can be quite confident things will turn out well, and they certainly have.  And yes, it still is coming to you Live From Nashville, and we do perform unplugged, and without a net.

Carolyn:  And no serious falls yet.  The presenters for the Journal Club meetings are all Vandy audiology faculty members, right?

Gus: Correct.  I think we have around 17 or so PhD audiologists on our faculty and a good share of them have presented for the Journal Club one time or another; some are back every year. 

Carolyn:  For our readers who have never been to one of our Journal Club meetings (a small sample I am sure), we should note that these are live webinars that are offered for CEUs, and also recorded for on-demand viewing.  Can you review a typical agenda?

Gus:  Sure.  Each meeting has a topic focus: balance function, hearing aids, pediatrics, cochlear implants, ethics, etc.  We’re fortunate that at Vandy, we have an international expert for most every topic you can think of, so that faculty member then presents a review of current literature on the given topic.  We only have an hour, so that means the review is limited to four or five articles. We usually review research that has been published in the past year, and we try to select articles that have an immediate impact on clinical practice, as our audience is primarily clinicians.  To ensure we focus on the clinical nuggets in these articles, we generally follow this format: What the Authors Asked, What they Did, What they Found, and Why It Matters.  Over the past five years, I’m thinking we’ve had over 20 Journal Club meetings, so that’s probably around 100 article reviews.  We’ve established quite a viewing library.

Carolyn:  Believe it or not, Gus, the Journal Club has received 8,000 views so far!

In addition to the live and recorded webinars, some have been transcribed into articles, and a few are also available as podcasts.  So if you count all course formats, that number is even higher.

Gus:  Whoa, even more than I would have guessed.  I know our faculty puts a lot of work into these presentations, so I’m always pleased to see a large turnout for the webinars. How many people are reading the articles and listening to the podcasts?

Carolyn:  The articles and podcasts have been accessed 3,000 times so far, bringing our totals to 11,000.  Wow.  And considering most people are also earning CEUs, well, that's a lot of CEUs.

Gus:  Those are impressive numbers, and it's nice to know we’re helping people out with those important CEUs.

You know it’s funny, we're always trying to come up with the latest cutting-edge research to review, but for one of our meetings, we talked about a pretty old topic. Ben Hornsby and I simply discussed research related to word recognition testing, and some of the articles we cited were 20-30 years old.  And guess what?  It went over pretty big.

Carolyn:  Yep.  We all need a reminder now and then of what we should remember from graduate school. 

Each Journal Club also features a Vandy Vignette, a fun and interesting tidbit related to Vandy, at about the halfway point in the article reviews.  Can you share a few highlights?

Gus:  Definitely.  We’ve had some great ones.  Fred Bess talked about Vanderbilt’s Freeman McConnell (first Director of clinic in 1951), who was describing Carhart’s notch before Carhart!  Anne Marie Tharpe pointed out that in 1961, Dr. Mildred T. Stahlman founded the Division of Neonatology at Vanderbilt University Hospital, and developed the first respirator for infants with damaged lungs. And in 1962, Dr. Stahlman founded the nation’s first Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Vanderbilt University Hospital.  Of lesser significance, but still interesting, Todd Ricketts, in his review of hearing aid processing, presented a Vandy Vignette regarding the Vanderbilt basketball court. It's is one of the only ones in the nation where the teams sit on the ends of the court, rather than on the side.

Carolyn:  Do you have a favorite Vandy Vignette from the past five years?

Gus:  I’d have to say my favorite was one presented by Gary Jacobson, who you know is the Director of our Division of Audiology, and of course has had a very distinguished career. For his Vignette, he shared with us a rejection letter he received in 1975 when he applied to an audiology PhD program.  What program was it?  Vanderbilt!  Now I did get my hands on what Gary looked like back in his Kent State days, before he became famous, and I’ll let you make your own judgments.  But I’m guessing that the funky sideburn/beard thing going on in his application photo may have had something to do with the rejection.

Carolyn:  Too funny.  Lest someone reading this gets the impression that these meetings are nothing but fun, we should note some of the cutting-edge research that’s been covered.

Gus:  You can never have too much fun, but I agree.  Several things come to mind in terms of our Journal Club being on the forefront of research and clinical topics.  Rene Gifford, who directs the Vandy cochlear implant (CI) program and CI research, covered two cutting-edge topics in her Vandy Journal Club sessions.  She gave a very thorough discussion of hearing preservation for cochlear implant outcomes that included a comprehensive review of hybrid CIs, before a commercially-available hybrid CI was even on the market.  In another session, she reviewed articles regarding cochlear implantation in children less than 1 year of age.  As you know, these are two very important topics right now, and we are fortunate to have Rene’s expertise in helping us sort out the literature and its clinical implications.

Another timely topic was Devin McCaslin’s review of the new video head impulse test.  The head impulse test is an important tool in vestibular assessment that had limited practical application until just recently when new equipment became available.  Devin clearly explained the clinical whys and hows of this new clinical tool, before most audiologists – even those who regularly perform vestibular assessments – had a chance to use it.

Carolyn:  I just happened to bring along a few reviews from that course.  Here’s what audiologists had to say about it:

“This information was critical to my practice.”

“This was very well presented to help me understand a new test that I was not familiar with, which will be an important part of my assessments in the future.”

We love hearing that feedback.  I know we’re wrapping up here, and with over 20 hours of content, there are too many juicy pieces of the Journal Club to cover at the Ear Inn today. 

Gus:  Ok, allow me one more and we’ll get back to our beverages.  When it comes to hot topics and new research, I’d be remiss not to mention Linda Hood’s reviews of auditory neuropathy (ANSD).  Here’s a disorder where the proper diagnosis and treatment has life-changing implications, and it seems like every few months new research emerges.  Linda does such a great job of translating the research into clinical know-how, which is why her Journal Club sessions have been among the most popular.

Carolyn:  Remind me when our next Vandy Journal Club scheduled to meet.

Gus:  As you know, September is going to be Hearing Aid Month here at AudiologyOnline, and fitting with that theme perfectly will be our next Journal Club meeting. It will feature Todd Ricketts talking about what’s new with hearing aid features and fitting algorithms.  Todd will be presenting on Wednesday, September 17^th, at noon Eastern.

Carolyn:  I should mention that all past and future Vandy Journal Club sessions can be found in the AudiologyOnline course library.  Simply use the “Search by Topic” filter and select “Vanderbilt Audiology Journal Club”.

At this time, I’d like to propose a toast to you, as the host and coordinator of the Vandy Journal Club, to all the esteemed Vandy faculty who contribute their time and expertise to these courses, and to our viewers and readers for their participation and feedback.  It’s been a great five years – cheers! 

Gus:  Cheers!