Student’s Research May Help ENTs With Diagnoses

Otolaryngologists—often called ear, nose, and throat (ENT) doctors—require specialized training to diagnose and surgically treat conditions of the head and neck. Ayesha Mulla, a senior psychology major, recently earned a research grant to help make sure ENTs have the best educational tools and highest-level skills to evaluate their patients accurately.

The grant from Psi Chi, the international honor society for psychology students, will help fund Mulla’s research project, “Assessing the Oculomotor Behaviors of Otolaryngologists.” In the study, she will record and evaluate the eye movements of research participants as they examine CT scans of patients who have already been diagnosed with ENT conditions.

Then, participants will make their own diagnosis about whether the images reveal an abnormality that needs treatment. Mulla plans to collect visual behavior data from five expert-level ENTs and 10 novices to compare their medical conclusions.

“We will measure participants’ rapid eye movements and their fixations and see whether they make the same diagnosis as the official diagnosis,” Mulla says. “Identifying these behaviors will give us insight into the differences between how expert ENTs and novices interpret these images.”

With this data, Mulla hopes to contribute to the body of literature on visual expertise in ENT training. Her findings could potentially result in the design of more effective educational assessment tools that improve training for medical students, reducing the likelihood of medical errors by professional ENTs.

“If a patient is misdiagnosed and undergoes surgery they didn’t need, there can be physical and psychological complications that they didn’t have to go through,” Mulla says. “If there’s a statistically significant difference in the way experts and novices interpret CT scans, we might propose educating ENTs in a specific way with better training modules so these medical errors don’t occur as often.”

In May, she was one of four New York Tech students who presented their research at the 25th annual meeting of the Vision Sciences Society (VSS), an international conference that brings together vision scientists from around the world. “Presenting at VSS was such an incredible experience,” Mulla says. “I felt truly honored that vision scientists from around the world were interested in my work, and it was amazing to interact with so many experts in the field.”

Mulla is conducting her research alongside Robert Alexander, Ph.D., assistant professor of psychology and counseling and the director of the Human Factors and Neuroscience research team. He says that, as senior lab manager, Mulla provides exceptional leadership and that her research advances a translational approach to patient safety and medical education.

“Ayesha has become a core leader in our group and operates with a level of autonomy that rivals early-stage graduate students: guiding newer team members, coordinating lab operations, and helping develop our research approaches,” Alexander says. “The Psi Chi award is a well-earned recognition of her sustained leadership and to her deep commitment to research with real-world stakes.”

By Ashley Festa