When Do You See an ENT?

If you or a loved one has repeated episodes of tonsillitis or recurrent ear infections, it’s time to see an otolaryngologist, or an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) doctor. An ENT is also the go-to specialist for sudden hearing loss, allergy assessment, sinusitis, hoarseness that lasts longer than six weeks or lump in the neck that lasts longer than two weeks.

The good news? With its new hospital opening, St. Vincent Health will soon have a board-certified ENT right on site who will diagnose, treat conditions and perform surgeries, like tonsillectomy or myringotomy, a procedure to create a hole in the ear drum to allow fluid that is trapped in the middle ear to drain out.

Meet Robert C. McLean, Ph.D., MD. He’s St. Vincent Health’s ENT. Dr. McLean earned his bachelor’s in mathematics at Rice University in Houston, went on to study at Duke University to complete a doctorate in math, then attended medical school at Texas A&M.

His fascinating pathway to the medical field included scholarship and academia in his early career, with research in differential geometry and service as assistant professor in the math departments at Texas A&M and Oklahoma State. Dr. McLean’s educational and professional history is peppered with numerous awards and honors, and he continues to teach to family practice residents at the University of Wyoming and Southern Colorado Family Medicine, and lecture elsewhere.

Dr. McLean finds his patient care philosophy in a Latin phrase: Non venit ministrari sed ministrare, which translated means “Not to be served but to serve.” He puts this idea into action with every patient, including those he treats on annual medical missions to Honduras, Guatemala, Kenya, the Philippines, Mexico, Haiti, China and Brazil, where performs cleft lip and palate repairs and other ENT and plastic surgeries and procedures.