Professor of audiology and tinnitus expert Dr. Marc Fagelson created a video lesson titled “What’s that ringing in your ears?” for the Ted-Ed YouTube channel.

Tinnitus is a condition where the patient hears sounds such as ringing or buzzing without there being an external source creating them.

Dr. Marc Fagelson  (Photograph by John Cole/East Tennessean) 

Fagelson started his career in audiology working for Marlboro Country Music doing promotion and production work as part of multiple bands in New York City. He attended Columbia University for his undergraduate degree in English and went back to get his master’s degree in audiology.

“I started taking these courses, and I really liked them, and I did pretty well in them,” said Fagelson. “Well, enough that a bunch of my professors said, ‘you need to keep going and get a Ph.D.'”

He received his doctorate at the University of Texas at Austin. He accepted his job at ETSU in 1996 and has been here ever since.

This area is home to many audiologists with doctoral degrees, so Fagelson had to figure out what areas of research he could cover that his colleagues had not already.

“The one thing that nobody would touch was tinnitus,” Fagelson said. “And [it is] still kind of a universal attitude among ear, nose and throat physicians and, unfortunately, a lot of audiologists, because there’s no simple cure for tinnitus. A lot of people struggle.”

Fagelson has already pitched a new video idea to the Ted-Ed group about sound intolerance. He is also compiling a case book on the topic with a colleague from Wisconsin.

He is currently working on a National Institute of Health sponsored trial testing the efficacy of online treatments for tinnitus patients, which will be helpful to those stuck at home during the pandemic.

“Practically, I see the need for it,” said Fagelson. “For some people, you’d have to drive five, six hours to talk to somebody about your tinnitus, if you really wanted to have a good conversation about it. So, in that way, I believe that the internet stuff certainly has a place in our clinical regimen.”

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