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Hearing Aid


In the waiting room of UM Ear Institute’s new clinic, a 14-foot black-and-white photo collage tells the story of thousands of patients who have had their hearing restored within the institute’s doors. In one photo, Thomas Balkany, M.D., holds toddler Justin Fieler, the institute’s 1,000th cochlear implant patient.

Fred Telischi, M.D., and Thomas Balkany, M.D., are seen in one of the examination rooms of UM Ear Institute’s new facility.

New space for the institute has been a dream of Balkany’s since he arrived at UM in 1990. The project finally came to fruition this year under the leadership of Miller School Dean Pascal J. Goldschmidt, M.D., with support from University of Miami/Jackson, the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners, and community advocates.

With the help of a $5 million county bond issue approved by voters, the institute has moved to the Miller School’s Clinical Research Building, where faculty will see both insured and underserved patients and continue their groundbreaking research on hearing loss.

Housed within UM’s nationally ranked Department of Otolaryngology, UM Ear Institute, part of the University of Miami Health System-UHealth, is one of the busiest centers of its kind in the United States. At four times the size of its previous location, the 20,000-square-foot facility will significantly improve the resources available to hearing-impaired children and their parents.

“This is a unique, high-tech facility that provides our patients with diagnostic and treatment capabilities that are unsurpassed anywhere,” says Balkany, Hotchkiss Professor, chair of the Department of Otolaryngology, and professor of neurological surgery and pediatrics. “The institute is also designed to optimize clinical research and teach professionals from around the world.”

Under the leadership of Fred Telischi, M.D., professor and vice chair of otolaryngology and director of the institute, physicians see patients with the most challenging cases of hearing loss, dizziness, ringing in the ears, tumors of the ear, and other disorders.

The institute’s Cochlear Implant Center is the busiest and most advanced in Florida and includes an auditory verbal therapy program to teach children to listen with their implants. Among other high-tech additions, the new clinic also features a highly advanced Hearing Aid Center, Computerized Dizziness and Balance Center, a Tinnitus Treatment Center, and a state-of-the-art Audiology Diagnostic Center.