Steven M. Zeitels

Steven Marc Zeitels
Born	(1957-11-07) 7 November 1957 New York City, New York, United States
Known for	surgical innovation, voice procedures (phonosurgery)
Scientific career
Institutions	Harvard Medical School & Massachusetts General Hospital

Steven Marc Zeitels (born November 7, 1957) in New York City is the Eugene B. Casey Professor of Laryngeal Surgery at Harvard Medical School and the Director of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Center for Laryngeal Surgery and Voice Rehabilitation (MGH Voice Center), which is the most comprehensive facility of its kind in the world. He is an internationally recognized surgeon specializing in throat, voice, airway and larynx problems. In 2004, the first endowed Chair in Laryngeal Surgery at Harvard Medical School was created for him while he re-established a Harvard Laryngeal Surgery service at the MGH, which had not been present since the 1920s. Zeitels’ contributions to voice and laryngeal surgery are highly recognized in the USA and throughout the world. He has received more than 50 awards and honored lectureships for his achievements including the Casselberry Award and the Newcomb Award from the American Laryngological Association, as well as the Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Boston University (BU) School of Medicine in 2007.

Career

Zeitels grew up in New Rochelle, New York). His father, an orthodontist, pushed him to take up a career in medicine and enrolled him at the age of 16 in the 1st class of Boston University Trustee Scholars, an experimental educational program for gifted teens wanting to go into medicine. In 1976 he obtained a scholarship to Boston University's accelerated six-year medical program. He graduated from the BU School of Medicine in 1982.

Knowing he wanted to be a surgeon he completed the BU - Tufts combined Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Program in 1987 as well as a Head & Neck Surgical Oncology Fellowship at BU and the Boston Veterans Affairs Medical Center in 1988. While there he designed and patented a surgical laryngoscope with a triangular opening, which allowed doctors to see previously obscured areas of the throat.

Zeitels is regarded as a prolific surgical innovator having designed numerous new voice restoration procedures (phonosurgery) and instruments, and holds a number of patents for these innovations. He is widely acknowledged for pioneering novel laser applications to treat dysplasia and cancer as well as laryngeal papillomatosis, polyps, nodules and is also well known for perfecting office-based laryngeal laser surgery. Most notable, was his introduction of angiolytic laser treatment of vocal cord cancer, which was a groundbreaking achievement evolving from Judah Folkman’s concepts of tumor angiogenesis and Rox Anderson’s theory of selective photothermolysis. Zeitels has also designed unique procedures to restore the voice of those who have had vocal paresis and paralysis. His techniques were featured in a National Geographic Channel documentary, “The Incredible Human Machine”, which highlighted Zeitels’ microsurgery on Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. Zeitels also performed a unique endoscopic removal of a tongue-base larynx cancer on Tom Hamilton, Aerosmith’s base guitarist after radiation and chemotherapy failed to control his advanced throat cancer.

Zeitels’ work has been featured in the Harvard Medical Alumni Journal, the Harvard Magazine and the Boston University Alumni Journal and discussed extensively in print media, radio, and television both nationally and internationally [i.e. Good Morning America, The Today Show, ABC World News, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, London Sunday Times, USA Today, Boston Globe, NPR, BBC, National Geographic, Nightline, Bloomberg, Reuters, Boston – New York – LA television news. Zeitels has done career-saving surgery on hundreds of American and international performing vocalists.

Media venues have discussed the surgical and medical care of a number of Zeitels’ celebrity patients including Adele, Julie Andrews, Steven Tyler, Cher, Joe Buck, Dick Vitale, Lionel Richie, Roger Daltrey, Paul Stanley, Christina Perri, Denyce Graves, Frederica von Stade, Carol Vaness, Livingston Taylor, Anna Vissi, Sam Wyche, Jim O'Brien, Charlie Moore, David Brudnoy and Connie Fisher. His patients have been strong supporters of research and education and formed the nonprofit Voice Health Institute (VHI), formerly known as the Institute for Laryngology and Voice Restoration (ILVR) to help others with laryngeal and voice disorders. Julie Andrews serves as the Honorary chairwoman of the VHI Advisory Board. Along with Julie Andrews, Steven Tyler, Denyce Graves, Joe Buck and Roger Daltrey have been active collaborators with Zeitels to advance the cause of restoring lost voices. In Roger Daltrey's case, Zeitels removed precancerous dysplasia from his vocal fold just one month prior to his 2010 Super Bowl performance.

Zeitels conceived and directs the Voice Restoration Research Program, which is a collaborative effort of investigators at Harvard and MGH, as well as Robert Langer at MIT. They have spent over a decade developing a biomaterial that would restore the largest majority of human voice loss and the research group received the 2010 Broyles Maloney Award of the American Bronchoesophagological Association for their effort. They hope to initiate human trials to test the new vocal biogel in early 2013.

Zeitels’ single-author Atlas of Phonomicrosurgery is considered by many surgeons to be the definitive text in microsurgery of the larynx. Zeitels has authored more than 200 scientific articles, book chapters, and videotapes in these areas as well as presenting over 300 papers and lectures. He serves or has served on the editorial board of 5 national and international journals.

Involvement

Zeitels has also served as the honored guest of many international organizations including the British Voice Association, Japan Laryngological Association, Pan-European Voice Conference, Collegium Medicorum Theatri, European Laser Association, British Laser Medicine Association, Australian Voice Association, Spanish Head and Neck Society, Brazilian Society of Laryngology and Voice, New Zealand Society of Otolaryngology, Chilean Head & Neck Society, Mexican society of Otolaryngology, and the British Academic Conference in Otolaryngology. He has also been the visiting professor at many departments, universities, and hospitals including, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Columbia University, University of California (San Diego & Irvine), University of Pittsburgh, University of Texas (Dallas), University of Oregon, University of Cincinnati, University of Utah, Vanderbilt University, University of Alabama, University of Connecticut, University of West Virginia, University of Minnesota, University of Navarra - Pamplona / Spain, Tel Aviv University / Israel, and Auckland University / New Zealand, Kumamoto University / Japan, McGill & Dalhousie Universities / Canada, and The Juilliard School.

Personal life

While in Chile lecturing as a guest of the Chilean Society of Otolaryngology in 2001 he meet Maria Nuria Hananias, a Chilean otolaryngological surgeon. Married in 2003, they have two children, a boy and a girl.

Recognition

• 1975-79 Boston University Trustee Scholar.
• 1998 Casselberry Award: American Laryngological Association.
• 2004 Zeitels became the Eugene B. Casey Professor of Laryngeal Surgery at Harvard Medical School, the first in this field at Harvard
• 2007 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Boston University (BU) School of Medicine.
• 2010 Broyles Maloney Award of the American Bronchoesophagological Association.
• 2012 Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People (14th)
• 2012 Rolling Stone’s 25 Best Things in Rock (13th)
• 2012 Grammy Awards Show: Adele recognizes Dr. Zeitels by thanking him for restoring her voice as she accepted the first of her six awards

References

• Steven M. Zeitels entries at the MGH Publications Section
• Zeitels scientific publications listed in the National library of medicine
• Meet Adele's vocal cord surgeon, Dr. Steven Zeitels - February 13, 2012
• Exclusive: Adele's Surgeon Calls Grammy Performance 'Totally Inspirational' - February 14, 2012
• Grammy Awards: Adele's return from vocal cord surgery is on pace
• Adele’s Famous Throat Doctor Made Tonight’s Soaring Return Possible
• Adele's throat surgeon: 'The show must go on'
• Grammys: Adele Gives Shout Out to Steven Zeitels
• Adele: One and Only
• The real Adele: Grammy sensation talks love and how her throat op changed her life - February 15, 2012
• Adele Will Sing "Beautifully" At Grammys, Says Throat Doctor - February 10, 2012
• Adele Undergoes Surgery on Her Vocal Cords (New York Times - November 7th, 2011)
• The Surgery That Saves Silenced Singers (National Public Radio - November 6th, 2011)
• How Professors from Harvard & MIT Could Help Save the Voices of Steven Tyler, Julie Andrews & Roger Daltrey (Boston Innovation - November 6th, 2011)
• Adele seeks care in Boston for increasingly common throat ailment (Boston Globe - November 1st, 2011)
• Vibrating Gel May Give New Voice to Throat-Cancer Patients (Bloomberg - November 1st, 2011)
• Lasers May Treat Cancers of the Larynx, (New York Times - May 6th, 2008)
• A Doctor For A Song (Boston Globe Magazine - March 14th, 2004)
• Rock's Best Laser Light Show Is in Steven Tyler's Throat (Wall Street Journal - August 16th, 2006)
• Laser breakthrough lets stars sing again (The Sunday Times - August 27th, 2006)
• Andrews sings some praises (Boston Globe - December 3, 2007)
• Mailer's out with a new book but in the hospital (Boston Globe - October 18th, 2007)
• Lasers May Treat Cancers of the Larynx (Herald Tribune - May 6th, 2008)
• Dick Vitale to be silent? Couldn't be (Herald Tribune - December 19th, 2007)
• Denyce Graves, After the Low Notes (Washington Post - October 24th, 2004)
• Dick Vitale undergoes vocal cord surgery (USA Today - December 18th, 2007)
• Vitale returns following throat surgery (USA Today - February 4th, 2008)
• Implants Are Giving New Voices To Patients (New York Times - August 11th, 1998)
• Voicebox Hero (Boston Magazine - September 22nd, 2008)
• Tuning Up Musicians (Harvard Medicine - Summer 1999 Issue)
• He Gives Voice to Lost Cords (Bostonia Magazine - Spring 2001 Issue)

External links

• Massachusetts General Hospital's Voice Center
• Voice Health Institute - VHI (Non-Profit) (formerly the Institute of Laryngology and Voice Restoration - ILVR)