The Gold Medal Award is given to one of our esteemed colleagues for furthering the goals of the Prosper Meniere Society through research excellence, scientific innovation, and far-reaching contributions to the investigation of inner ear disorders.
Charles C. Della Santina, PhD MD
Charles C. Della Santina, PhD MD is a Professor of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery and Biomedical Engineering at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he directs the Johns Hopkins Cochlear Implant Center and the Johns Hopkins Vestibular NeuroEngineering Laboratory. Dr. Della Santina earned a medical degree from the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine and a doctorate in biomedical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley College of Engineering. He completed residency training and a post-doctoral research fellowship in otolaryngology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 2002, and he has served on the Johns Hopkins faculty since then. As a practicing neurotologic surgeon, Dr. Della Santina specializes in treatment of middle ear, inner ear and auditory/vestibular nerve disorders. His clinical interests include restoration of hearing via cochlear implantation and management of patients who suffer from vestibular disorders, with a particular focus on helping individuals disabled by chronic postural instability and unsteady vision after bilateral loss of vestibular sensation. His laboratory’s research centers on basic and applied research supporting development of vestibular implants, which are medical devices intended to partially restore inner ear sensation of head movement. In addition to that work, his >140 publications include studies characterizing inner ear physiology and anatomy; describing novel clinical tests of vestibular function; and clarifying the effects of cochlear implantation, vestibular implantation, superior canal dehiscence syndrome and intratympanic gentamicin therapy on the inner ear and central nervous system. Dr. Della Santina is also the founder of Labyrinth Devices LLC, a company dedicated to bringing novel vestibular implant and testing technology into routine clinical care.