EARLY HEARING DETECTION AND INTERVENTION VIRTUAL CONFERENCE
MARCH 2-5, 2021
(Virtually the same conference, without elevators, airplane tickets, or hotel room keys)
THE ANTONIA BRANCIA MAXON AWARD FOR EHDI EXCELLENCE
Julie Strickland
Rady Children's Hospital, located in San Diego, California would like to nominate Julie Strickland for more than 20 years of significant contribution to newborn hearing screening (NBHS) assessment. In 1999, when the NBHS law was enacted, Julie developed the entire screening structure for San Diego and Imperial Counties. As the point person for our area, in addition to infrastructure development, she created the training program to educate nursing staff on conducting screenings. Our area was quick to adopt auditory brainstem response assessment (ABR) rather than using otoacoustic emissions. Julie was the driving force, providing information about the need to identify auditory neuropathy, which was only available with ABR screening.
Due to her expertise, Julie has served as the NBHS consultant for multiple birthing hospitals in the San Diego area. In this role, a few of her many duties include: reviewing California State Policies and Procedures, monitoring pass/refer rates for our counties, mandating and providing education of hearing screening personnel, mandating and educating neonatologists, providing chart review of outcomes of neonatal intensive care unit babies, providing support for California State re-accreditation site visits and reviewing/providing consultation on equipment needs.
In addition to the educational impact previously mentioned, Julie provides education to our new clinical staff, presents at Hearing Coordination Center meetings, lectures Audiology doctoral students at San Diego State University the need, process and methods of assessing young children, provides in-service to our Otolaryngology medical fellows, and is a guest lecturer at national and international meetings to include Society for Ear Nose and Throat Advancement in Children and Rady Children's Soundwave.
She has been activity engaged in research in the areas of hearing loss, examples of which include reducing hearing loss with cytomegalovirus (CMV), using sodium thiosulfate for reduction of cisplatin-induced hearing loss, identifying the long-term hearing outcomes of pediatric patients with AIDS/HIV, investigating the normalization of hearing in children who failed their newborn hearing screening and documenting hearing loss associated with difluoromethylornithine (DFMO). One clinically-impactful study addressed the clinical utility of auditory steady state response (ASSR) in children. Julie looked at the correlation of threshold estimate between ASSR and our behavioral assessment. Based on this research, our center has been an early adopter of ASSR. This data has been widely distributed to other centers who are interested in embracing ASSR as a method of obtaining frequency-specific hearing loss measurement in babies and young children.
Julie is first and foremost a clinician. We jokingly call her the "baby whisperer," because she has the unique talent of making both mothers and babies feel comfortable enough to allow for us to obtain natural sleep ABRs. Each month, we obtain patient satisfaction surveys, and Julie is consistently called out by name for her outstanding bedside manner. Our parents, our children and our staff are grateful for her clinical expertise and dedication to hearing loss identification and treatment. She is the tireless advocate that exemplifies the Antonia Brancia Maxon Award for EHDI Excellence.