Presenters: 

Julie Honaker, PhD

Kathleen Muhvic, AuD

Evalena Behr, AuD

Tamara Francini, AuD

CEUs: 0.1 AAA/Tier 1

Duration: 60 minutes

Instructional Level: Intermediate

Program Focus: Knowledge 

Description:

Selecting vestibular assessment tests should be based on medical necessity and answering clinically based questions related to individual patient symptoms, past medical history, and signs. This intermediate presentation will provide an overview of evidence-based test selection and best-practice protocols in the assessment of patients with vestibular-related symptoms. This will be displayed through a series of clinical vignettes highlighting current vestibular testing trends and best practice guidelines.

Learning Outcomes:  

1. To choose appropriate test measures based on patient symptomatology and clinical hypotheses.

2. To describe clinical decision-making approaches for vestibular testing protocol development.

3. To apply tailored vestibular test battery approaches through a series of clinical vignettes.

Julie A. Honaker, PhD

Julie A. Honaker, PhD, CCC-A is the Section Head of Audiology, Head and Neck Department, Integrated Surgical Institute, and the Director of the Vestibular and Balance Disorders Program at the Cleveland Clinic. Her passion for vestibular sciences developed during her master’s program in audiology (2001) and Ph.D. (2006) at the University of Cincinnati, followed by a post-doctoral fellowship at the Mayo Clinic (2009).  Prior to joining the Cleveland Clinic in 2016, she was an Associate Professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with her teaching and research program focused on vestibular and balance sciences.

Kathleen Muhvic, AuD

Kathleen Muhvic, AuD, CCC-A is a Clinical Audiologist at Cleveland Clinic Beachwood Family Health Center since 2019. Primary interests include adult diagnostic testing, adult hearing aid amplification, vestibular disorders, and noise induced hearing loss. She completed her Doctor of Audiology degree at the Northeast Ohio Audiology Consortium in 2019.

Evalena Behr, AuD

Evalena Behr, AuD, CCC-A is a Vestibular Audiologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. Her interests include vestibular diagnostics across the lifespan and clinical research. She completed her Doctor of Audiology degree at Nova Southeastern University in 2022. In addition to her clinical externship, she completed an additional year-long vestibular fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic.

Tamara Francini, AuD

Tamara Francini, AuD, CCC-A obtained her Doctor of Audiology degree at the Northeast Ohio Au.D. Consortium (NOAC) and completed her externship at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in 2010. She has worked in an outpatient hospital setting since that time. Her clinical interests are diagnostics, hearing aids and vestibular testing in the adult patient and she has a passion for precepting students and externs. She recently transitioned to Senior Audiologist as Coordinator of the Externship Program at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.