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Within the Voice Profession
- Check with fellow or area professionals: teachers, preachers, TV/radio announcers, singers, voice teachers, singing coaches, and voice students.
- Check with music schools in your area, church choirs, and singing groups.
Within the Medical Professions
- Check with your primary care physician (PCP) as to where he would go for voice problems or where he would send his relatives.
- Check with medical centers in your area.
- Check with the Otolaryngological (ENT) Departments/Divisions in your area hospital or medical center.
- Check with Neurology Departments/Divisions – or specialized clinics for stroke, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, etc. – in your area hospital or medical center. Neurology patients with strokes, Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, etc., also have voice problems.
Within the Voice Care Professions
- Check with voice specialists in your area:
- Voice physician or laryngologist
- Speech and language pathologist
- Check with established voice centers and their websites for referral sites in your area.
- Check with professional organizations and their websites for referrals in your area.
Among Patients Themselves
- Check with other individuals who have had voice problems or similar voice problems.
- Check with other patients in the waiting room!
Harnessing the Internet
NOTE:
- AT THIS TIME, NOT ALL RECOGNIZED VOICE PHSYICIAN SPECIALISTS MAY HAVE WEBSITES.
- SINCE WEBSITES ARE IN CONSTANT FLUX – new ones getting developed; established ones changing – SEARCH STRATEGIES CAN BE MORE HELPFUL THAN LISTS OF SPECIFIC SITES.
- Check the medical literature, Web-based information sites.
- Be critical of websites that have commercial links or gains.
- Medical publications are valued for the information about the voice disorder and are recognized as an indicator of peer-reviewed medical expertise.
- NOTE however, that the number of a doctor’s publications is not the sine qua non of clinical expertise – there are outstanding private practice physicians who do not publish.
- Three most helpful key words tested in searches specific for voice disorders:
- “Voice center”
- “Voice disorder”
- “Voice care”
- IMPORTANT: Discuss the information with your primary care physician, a physician friend, or your voice doctor – patient-doctor communication is key to successful health care.
When Faced With Choice of Several Voice Doctors, Questions That Could Help Determine Which Voice Expert Is Best for You
- If you already have a diagnosis, information regarding your voice disorder can help you assess the doctor who will work well with you. Discussions with your PCP can help.
- Is the doctor’s competence for your particular voice disorder, or voice disorders in general, recognized by his medical peers?
- Does the doctor network well with your PCP? With local physicians? With own patients?
- Who make up the voice care team?Speech-language pathologist? Voice therapist? Neurologist? Nurse? Do the voice care team members network well with patients?
- What special tests are done in the voice clinic or center? What kinds of equipment are used for viewing the voice box? Specifically, laryngoscopy? Stroboscopy? (For more information, see Laryngoscopy/Stroboscopy.)
- Does the doctor have phonomicrosurgical experience? Expertise? (For more information, see Phonomicrosurgery.)
- Will the doctor discuss medical second opinions with you or your PCP and help clear up issues and unanswered questions?
- For long term care – does the doctor value patient information and/or patient-doctor communication?
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Advisory Note