Emily McMahan, AuD '13, has had a lifelong interest in tinnitus, fueled by her mother struggling with the condition. By the time Dr. McMahan entered Salus University Osborne College of Audiology’s (OCA) Doctor of Audiology program, there was still much to learn about tinnitus. Tinnitus, or “ringing in the ears,” is the perception of sound when no actual external noise is present, according to the American Tinnitus Association.
Her journey began at OCA, where she was fortunate to be in an Audiology program that included a tinnitus management course — a rarity at the time. OCA's connections with community practices allowed Dr. McMahan to experience multiple rotations and receive mentorship from Dr. Gail Brenner, an award-winning audiologist and tinnitus specialist at the Tinnitus Treatment Center of Philadelphia. According to Dr. McMahan, this mentorship helped her advance in her career.
After completing her residency in Alaska in 2013, Dr. McMahan chose to stay in the state. In 2015, she founded the Alaska Hearing and Tinnitus Center, a full-service, diagnostic private practice with an emphasis on serving patients with tinnitus. She also hosts Doctor of Audiology students for externships from her alma mater at her clinic in Alaska.
Fast forward more than a decade, and Dr. McMahan is now leading groundbreaking tinnitus research. She is part of the first real-world analysis of U.S. patients treated with Lenire, the only FDA-approved bimodal neuromodulation treatment device for tinnitus.
Her manuscript, co-authored with Hubert Lim, PhD, chief scientific officer of Neuromod (creator of Lenire) at the University of Minnesota, is titled "Effectiveness of Bimodal Neuromodulation for Tinnitus Treatment in Real-World Clinical Settings in the United States.”
“This is the first and only tinnitus management device in the U.S. to have FDA approval and to be considered efficacious and non-experimental,” said Dr. McMahan.
She collected real-world data from her patients in her practice. Drs. McMahan and Lim published the results of 220 patients with tinnitus following their treatments with Lenire. For now, their paper is under peer review.
“There is a lot of further research in the writing process as we continue to dive deeper into tinnitus and its real-world patient outcomes,” she said.
The analysis revealed remarkable results:
“We’re using multiple points of stimulation to help the brain redirect its response, essentially teaching it a new response system,” said Dr. McMahan. “This helps the brain de-emphasize the negative awareness of tinnitus.”
The device and treatment protocol have been proven effective in multiple countries. In the U.S., the outcome measures have shown excellent results, making it the most favorable method of tinnitus management to date.
Dr. McMahan is a frequent speaker at both U.S.-based and international conferences. She is licensed in multiple states in order to bring effective tinnitus management closer to her patient's homes. She conducts consultations and follow-up care via telemedicine and also travels to host in-person field clinics, where she performs device fittings in person.
Other accepted tinnitus treatments historically have not closely tracked clinical outcomes. This has led to a gap in understanding what happens in real-world patient experiences after the white paper stages of research and development.
“That’s why it's so important to continue the work my colleagues and I are doing now,” said Dr. McMahan. “We’re hoping to set standards and expectations for providers and patients, enabling them to find relief from their tinnitus.”
Dr. McMahan acknowledges that being part of groundbreaking research has been a roller coaster. Working with patients whom have challenging tinnitus and were desperately seeking to be some of the first users in the U.S. to access Lenire has had challenging moments, but there have also been some of the brightest moments of her professional career in the last 22 months.
“It has been one of the greatest honors of my career to be trusted with this patient population,” she said. “Seeing so many patients transform from an unfavorable position to a better quality of life has made every hard moment worth it.”
