Professor
The Ohio State University
Dr. Oliver F. Adunka is the William H. Saunders MD Endowed Professor and the Vice Chair for Clinical Operations in the Department of Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery at The Ohio State University. He also serves as the Director of the Division of Otology, Neurotology, and Cranial Base Surgery within the department. Further, he is the Director of Pediatric Otology & the Hearing Program at Nationwide Children’s Hospital, one of the largest institutions of its kind in the United States
Dr. Adunka is a native of Vienna, Austria. He earned his medical degree from the
University of Vienna Medical School in Austria. He completed his otolaryngology residency training in Vienna, Austria and at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. He subsequently subspecialized in otology, neurotology and lateral skull base surgery at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. Before accepting his current position at The Ohio State University, Dr. Adunka practiced at UNC serving most recently as an Associate Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery.
His clinical practice includes all aspects of otology, neurotology, and lateral skull base surgery but especially cochlear implantation and complex posterior as well as middle fossa skull base surgery for sporadic disease as well as for Neurofibromatosis Type II.
Dr. Adunka is an NIH funded clinician scientist; current and past research has focused on various aspects of cochlear implantation including clinical and experimental research on electrode insertion trauma, hearing preservation, and combined electric acoustic stimulation. He has a special interest in real-time monitoring during electrode insertion to improve future generations of cochlear implants. His lab has lead the development of electrocochleography in cochlear implantation, a new technology that has recently been implemented in commercial cochlear implant systems.