WG Wilko Grolman
ENFRIT

Medical & academic career

From a laryngectomy bench to an ear-only practice

Thirty years in three acts: bench physics, a professorial trial programme, and a return to the consulting room.

Career timeline

  1. 1995–2008

    Universities of Amsterdam and Utrecht

    Early research period

    Twenty-six PubMed-indexed records, nine of them as first author. Phonatory mechanics of prosthetic voice, and the physical behaviour of stapes prostheses — the bench work that later shaped the surgical trials.

  2. 1998

    Faculty of Medicine · 29 October 1998

    Doctorate, University of Amsterdam

    Physical aspects of prosthetic voice rehabilitation after total laryngectomy. Supervisor: Prof. dr. P. F. Schouwenburg.

  3. 2006

    Founded · still operating

    Global Telemedicine Studios, Utrecht

    The technical backbone for LION’s international live surgical education broadcasts — operating theatres streamed to surgeons who would otherwise never see the case. Technical manager of the Telemedicine ENT studio: multipoint video conferencing, network engineering and live production. The engineering side.

  4. 2009

    Utrecht University · UMC Utrecht · from 1 January

    Professor of Otorhinolaryngology

    Appointed to the chair and head of the department of ENT–head and neck surgery. The randomised programme — bilateral implantation, single-sided deafness, day-case surgery, noise protection — was built from here.

  5. 2011–2016

    UMC Utrecht · November 2011 – 11 January 2016

    Chair, Division of Surgical Specialties

    Responsible for the surgical division alongside the ENT chair, with research and education in the portfolio.

  6. 2014–2018

    Peak output

    The programme at full stretch

    One hundred and thirty-four PubMed records in five years, eighty-one of them as last author — the signature of a supervisor running many doctoral projects and multicentre trials at once.

  7. Present

    Centre de Vertige · Clinique Causse, Colombiers, France

    Otology and vestibular practice

    A practice restricted to the ear: hearing, vertigo, tinnitus, Eustachian tube, with vestibular testing on site. President of LION.

01

Clinical focus

Hearing
Otosclerosis and stapes surgery, cochlear implantation, single-sided deafness, conductive and mixed hearing loss Including revision stapes surgery, for which he published an internally validated prognostic model.
Balance
Ménière’s disease, superior canal dehiscence, BPPV, vestibular migraine, persistent postural-perceptual dizziness VNG, vHIT and VEMP testing on site.
Tinnitus
Assessment and device-based reduction, including the tinnitus outcomes of the single-sided-deafness trial
Eustachian tube
Dysfunction, patulous tube, and middle-ear ventilation
Not practised
Head and neck oncology, rhinology, general ENT The practice is deliberately restricted to the ear.
02

Appointments & roles

Professor
Otorhinolaryngology, Utrecht University / UMC Utrecht, from 1 January 2009
Department head
ENT – Head and Neck Surgery, UMC Utrecht
Division chair
Surgical Specialties, UMC Utrecht, November 2011 – 11 January 2016
Research & education
Director within the division during that tenure
LION
Founding member and President, Live International Otolaryngology Network
Studio
Technical manager, Telemedicine ENT Three strands: technical (broadcast, AV, instrumentation), design (information architecture and build) and network (routing, firewalls, interoperability).
Broadcast
Global Telemedicine Studios Utrecht, since 2006
Practice
Centre de Vertige, Clinique Causse, Colombiers, France

Dates are those documented in institutional and bibliographic records. Where a source could not be verified, the entry has been left out rather than estimated.