Arun K. Gadre, M.D., the Heuser Hearing Institute Professor of Otology and Neurotology at the University of Louisville, has been appointed by Gov. Steve Beshear to the Kentucky Licensing Board for Specialists in Hearing Instruments. Dr. Gadre’s term began this month and runs through July 2017.

The board is the Commonwealth’s licensing body for the hearing instrument dispensing profession and makes recommendations when needed on state laws governing hearing instruments.

Gadre is board-certified in surgery and is listed among the 2014 “Best Doctors in America,” an honor accorded to only 5 percent of all physicians in the United States.

At UofL, Gadre also serves as the Heuser Hearing Institute Endowed Chair in Otology & Neurotology and Director of Otology, Neurotology and Skull Base Surgery in the division of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the Hiram C. Polk Jr., M.D., Department of Surgery at UofL. He practices with University of Louisville Physicians-Ear, Nose & Throat and has been on the faculty at UofL since 2006.

Gadre focuses on translational research. He is interested in research in minimally invasive otologic surgery and in cochlear implantation. He has studied the pathophysiology of otosclerosis, in which abnormal bone growth in the middle ear causes hearing loss; and Meniere’s disease, a disorder of the inner ear that can cause dizziness, tinnitus, ear pain or hearing loss.  He also recently found a new etiology, or causation, for vertigo which he presented in Antalya, Turkey, at the 29^th Meeting of the Politzer Society, the international society for otologic surgery and science. He was also appointed international neurotology board examiner at King Saud University in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

His clinical specialties are in otlogy, neurotology and skull base surgery, including surgery for acoustic neuroma, a benign tumor found on the eighth cranial nerve leading from the brain to the inner ear that can affect hearing and balance. He also performs cochlear and bone-anchored hearing aid implants, other ear surgeries and surgery of the facial nerves. Other specialties include management of vertigo and treatment of maxillofacial trauma.

Gadre earned his medical degree from Lokmanya Tilak Municipal Medical College and General Hospital in Bombay, India, and completed an ear-nose-throat residency and a head and neck surgery fellowship at Bombay’s Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital.  After arriving in the United States, he completed a residency in otolaryngology-head and neck surgery at the University of California-Davis Medical Center in Sacramento. He completed otology research fellowships at the House Ear Institute, Los Angeles, and was the Eleanor Naylor Dana Laser Research Fellow at the Lahey Clinic, Burlington, Mass.  He completed an accredited otology and neurotology fellowship at New York University Medical Center and Tisch Hospital. He moved to Louisville from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, and was formerly director of otology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.