NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTHFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, August 6, 1999
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Contact:Marin P. Allen
Voice: (301) 496-7243
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NIDCD Announces Outstanding Scientist and Clinician to Head Extramural Research Programs
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Robert A. Dobie, M.D., F.A.C.S. |
Robert A. Dobie, M.D., F.A.C.S., will head the Division of Extramural Research of the National
Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), one of the institutes of the National
Institutes of Health, according to an announcement made by NIDCD Director James F. Battey, Jr.,
M.D., Ph.D., on July 15, 1999.
"Bob Dobie is an energetic, experienced leader who will bring stellar scientific and medical
expertise to our extramural research programs. I am delighted that he will be leading a
professional team in serving a scientific community that is experiencing a revolution of
opportunity in human communication research," Battey said. Dr. Dobie is currently the "Thomas
Walthall Folbre M.D. Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery" at the University of
Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio, Texas, where he has served as Professor and
Department Chair since 1990.
Dr. Dobie responded to the appointment by saying, "I am honored to have been selected to
join the NIDCD leadership team. This is indeed a time of rare opportunity in research in
communication sciences and disorders. I look forward to working with Jim Battey, with a
dedicated and talented NIDCD extramural staff, and with the scientists and clinicians who
receive NIDCD funding for research and training, toward our ultimate goal of improving the
quality of life for millions of Americans who have diseases or disorders of human communication."
Dr. Dobie's undergraduate degree is from Stanford and his medical degree is from Stanford
University School of Medicine where he completed a surgical internship and a surgical residency.
He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa at Stanford in 1967. He held a Research Fellowship at
Louisiana State University Medical Center at the Kresge Research Laboratory of the South in
Auditory Physiology. He held a clinical fellowship in otoneurosurgery at the University Hospital
in Zurich, Switzerland, under Professor Ugo Fisch from 1983-1984. Dr. Dobie moved to the
University of Washington School of Medicine in 1975 as an assistant professor, was named
Associate Professor to the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery in 1980. Dr. Dobie
was named Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology/ Head and Neck Surgery at the University
of Washington School of Medicine in 1985.
He was Director of the Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center at the University of
Washington School of Medicine in Seattle from 1988-1990. At that time he was also a research
affiliate at the Child Development and Mental Retardation Center at the University of
Washington. From 1984-1990 Dr. Dobie was the Medical Director of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck
Surgery Clinic, UWMC where he also served as Director of the Resident Teaching Program from
1975-1977 and from 1979-1990. From 1987-1990 he was the Consultant in Otology at the Madigan
Army Medical Center in Tacoma Washington. He had also served as the Chief of Otolaryngology
Service at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in Seattle. He was Director of the
Vestibular Function Laboratory in the Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Clinic at UWMC. He
served as a corporate consultant for Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation from 1976-1986.
Dr. Dobie was Attending Otolaryngologist from 1975-1990 at the University of Washington Medical
Center, the Veterans Administration Medical Center, Harborview Medical Center, Children's
Hospital and Medical Center, and Pacific Medical Center all in Seattle Washington. Since 1990,
Dr. Dobie has been and is currently Attending Otolaryngologist at University Hospital and South
Texas Veterans Health Care System in San Antonio, Texas.
Dr. Dobie has already made significant contributions to NIDCD’s scientific community both as
a principal investigator and in service to NIDCD scientists. He was a charter member of the
Advisory Board of NIDCD, a member of the task force on the NIDCD's first National Strategic
Research Plan and has served on NIDCD’s Programs Advisory Committee for extramural research. He
was a member of the Executive Committee for the NIDCD/VA Hearing Aid Clinical Trial and on the
Executive Policy Board and as co-principal investigator for the Otolaryngology Clinical Trials
Cooperative Group (American Academy of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS)). Among
the many positions of responsibility within AAO/HNS, he served for seven years on the
Otolaryngology Examination Committee. Dr. Dobie was a member of scientific review committees
for both NIDCD and NINCDS.
Dr. Dobie serves on the editorial boards for the American Journal of Otology, Laryngoscope
and the Journal of Occupational Hearing Loss and the Journal of Noise and Health. He is a
member of the Executive Editorial Board for Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.
His research support from NIH began with an NINCDS Teacher Investigator Award in 1980 and he
has been funded with a series of grants related to Tinnitus, Auditory Responses, Tinnitus and
Depression in the Elderly, Hearing Development, Analysis of Auditory Evoked Potentials and
Analysis of Auditory Evoked Potentials and Emissions consistently since that time.
He is the author of Medical-Legal Evaluation of Hearing Loss and is co-author of six books
and monographs. Among his nineteen book chapters are many related to tinnitus and quality of
life and on noise-induced hearing loss. Dr. Dobie is the author of some one hundred papers
related to hearing research and otolaryngology.
Dr. Dobie was elected to the presidency of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology in
1991 and has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Deafness Research Foundation since
1991. He has been a member of the Scientific Review Committee for the National Organization
for Hearing Research since 1994 and has also been a member of Scientific Advisory Committee for
the American Tinnitus Association since the same year. He served as a member of the Task Force
on Hearing Protector Effectiveness for the National Hearing Conservation Association. He has
also served two terms as a member of the Science Advisory Council for the House Ear Institute.
Dr. Dobie has been active within his communities as a member of the Conflict of Interest
Committee at the University of Texas Health Science Center-San Antonio (UTHSC-SA), Chairman of
the Emergency Center Support Committee, Member of the Ad-Hoc Group for the House Committee on
Public Health, member of the Delineation of Clinical Privileges Task Force at UTHSC-SA and
currently as a member of the Steering Committee for the Medical School Strategic Planning at
UTHSC-SA. These are among some 30 significant committee chairmanships or memberships over the
past three decades.
Among his many awards and honors, Dr. Dobie received The Driftwood Award five times. This
award is given by the residents at the University of Washington, Department of Otolaryngology-
Head and Neck Surgery, to the faculty member who contributed most to resident training. He has
been listed in The Best Doctors in America in all four editions.
Dr. Dobie is an active member of the American Academy Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery,
the American College of Surgeons, the American Laryngological, Rhinological and Otological
Society (The Triological Society), the American Otological Society, American Neurotology
Society, Collegium Oto-Rhino-Laryngologicum Amicitiae Sacrum, Politizer Society and the
Association for Research in Otolaryngology.
This new position will also be a homecoming of sorts for Dr. Dobie. He was born into a
naval family in Annapolis and spent his senior year of high school and his college summers in
McLean, VA. With children at Yale, Barnard, and Georgetown, his family will be geographically
closer together than they have been since 1993.
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