Dr. Akaber M. Halawi

Timothy Downey is an Otolaryngologist in West Grove, Pennsylvania. Dr. Downey is rated as a Distinguished provider by MediFind in the treatment of Patulous Eustachian Tube. His top areas of expertise are Infant Hearing Loss, Hearing Loss, Jones Syndrome, and DFNB1. Dr. Downey is currently accepting new patients.

Deepa Galaiya is a fellowship-trained neurotologist and lateral skull base surgeon. Her clinical practice specializes in the surgical and medical treatment of middle ear, inner ear, skull base, and facial nerve disorders in children and adults. This includes treatment of skull base tumors, vestibular schwannomas (or acoustic neuromas), cochlear implants, chronic ear disease, hearing loss, cholesteatomas, otosclerosis, cerebrospinal fluid leaks, and eardrum perforations. She is trained in endoscopic ear surgery, a minimally invasive approach to treat cholesteatoma and eardrum perforations that reduce the need for visible incisions. She will be serving the patient population in the Baltimore and Washington, D.C., metro areas. Dr. Galaiya’s research interests include the development of a force-sensing microforceps for cochlear implantation to assess electrode insertion, tip foldover, and basilar membrane rupture. Her other projects involve computer vision for surgical navigation, tool-to-tissue registration for robotic temporal bone surgery, optimization of surgical ergonomics, and assessment of forces used in middle ear prosthesis placement with a cooperative control robotic arm. This provider is registered with the Florida Department of Health to perform telehealth services for patients in Florida. Dr. Galaiya is rated as an Advanced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Patulous Eustachian Tube. Her top areas of expertise are Patulous Eustachian Tube, Acoustic Neuroma, Infant Hearing Loss, Mastoidectomy, and Tissue Biopsy.

Neurotologist Bryan Ward specializes in treating disorders of the ear and skull base, such as chronic ear disease, obstructive and patulous eustachian tube dysfunction, and conditions that cause dizziness, such as superior canal dehiscence syndrome, Meniere’s disease and bilateral vestibulopathy. Dr. Ward earned his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He completed residency training in otolaryngology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, followed by fellowship training in eustachian tube disorders at Boston Children’s Hospital. He returned to Johns Hopkins for additional fellowship training in otology and neurotology. He has research interests in vestibular physiology and pathophysiology, with a particular focus on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and interactions between strong magnetic fields and the inner ear. The magnetic fields of MRI machines can induce a force in the inner ear that may cause dizziness and vertigo. This is a fundamentally new way of stimulating the vestibular system, and he is studying how the brain adapts to this stimulus. Dr. Ward is interested in understanding novel disorders of the inner ear vestibular system by developing improved MRI and via temporal bone histopathology. His clinical research interests include eustachian tube disorders, the pathophysiology of inner ear disorders such as superior semicircular canal dehiscence syndrome, Meniere’s disease and bilateral vestibulopathy, as well as novel treatments, including the development of a vestibular implant (led by Charles Della Santina). Dr. Ward is rated as an Experienced provider by MediFind in the treatment of Patulous Eustachian Tube. His top areas of expertise are Patulous Eustachian Tube, Acoustic Neuroma, Schwannoma, and Mondini Dysplasia.