Working with a Pioneer
This week’s blog is a little bit about me and my path, but mostly about a pioneer in our field who helped me along that path. I think this may be interesting because this pioneer was neither an audiologist, neurologist or ENT specialist. In fact, he was not a physician. But rather, he was trained as a neurophysiologist.
In 1992, I decided that I needed to learn more about vestibular management. I read every book available at the time, but knew that I was going to need some hands-on experience to put my reading into practice. I took a month off and headed to California to study at the House Ear Clinic. I figured that I could experience more in a month there than I would in a year of gradually building a vestibular practice. I was right about that. I was sponsored by Dr. Clough Shelton, a renowned neuro-otologist who had been a resident at Stanford when I did a clinical rotation there in 1982.
In addition to passing the occasional movie star or ex-president in the hallway, I met Ron Waldorf. Ron was doing clinical trials on a new type of eye movement recording system that might be applicable to vestibular testing. He had already developed infrared video goggles for an entirely different application.
Here is the story as I best remember it:
Back in the day, police officers would testify that a DUI suspect exhibited abnormal nystagmus on the roadside exam, indicating that their blood alcohol level was too high. Clever defense attorneys grilled the arresting officer in court with questions like, “Officer, where did you go to medical school?”, or “Officer, please explain the physiology behind these abnormal eye movements you have diagnosed?” So, Ron’s company (I don’t remember the name) developed technology so that the nystagmus could be recorded and interpreted later by a physician.
During my time at the House Clinic, we saw many “dizzy” patients every day, and I got a chance to see how the video goggles worked compared to electrode based testing. When VNG became commercially available, I got one of the first units on the East Coast.
Photo courtesy of www.bmbc.tv/episodes.php?n=93
HI Alan. You are surely correct in the influence Ron has had in the measurement of eye movements. His company is called IntelliNetx and in Torrance, CA as I recall. In addition to goggles, this method of measuring the influence of alcohol in drivers is quite innovative and quite defensible. I have always thought that it could be used in other ways in the evaluation of dizzy people. It’s nice that others are have some ideas of what Ron has done for the measurement of nystagmus.
Hello Dr. Desmond,
You were very lucky to have had such a cutting edge mentor!
Did you do lots of strip-paper ENGs prior to 1992? Two channels or four?