Archives for April 2026

Ear Community visits Seidman Labs at Harvard for Microtia genetics research

April 1, 2026 By Leave a Comment

Harvard Medical School’s Dr. Jon Seidman and Barbara McDonough with Melissa Tumblin of the Ear Community Organization

Last week on March 25th, 2026, I had the opportunity to meet with our microtia genetics team at Siedman Labs at Harvard Medical School when traveling to Boston! I met with Dr. Jon Seidman and Barbara McDonough, to catch up and discuss our new findings about the increased risk of FOXI3 causing microtia and craniofacial microsomia.

I have known Jon and Barbara for the past 10 years and am incredibly grateful for their passion behind wanting to help find the answers our community is looking for when it comes to what causes Microtia and Craniofacial Microsomia. Visiting them is like visiting with family! Dr. Seidman and Barbara have brilliant minds and are known for their research at Harvard and around the world with Seidman Labs and I am so proud of their passionate work that is at the forefront of genetics research for our microtia community! This is an incredible team we have and I am forever grateful to Dr. Ron Eavey (Vanderbilt) for introducing me to Dr. Seidman! I am also incredibly grateful to Dr. Dan Quiat (Harvard) for his work during our last grant project for microtia and atresia research, including the many researchers who all worked very hard on finding the answers the microtia and atresia community is looking for. While we still have a lot to understand and figure out, the increased risk on FOXI3 is new information and is discussed in our published papers and in the presentation by Dr. Jon Seidman on our website.
Contributing Authors in collaboration with our work include:
Daniel Quiat, Andrew T. Timberlake, Justin J. Curran, Michael L. Cunningham, Barbara McDonough, Maria A. Artunduaga, Steven R. DePalma, Milagros M. Duenas-Roque, Joshua M. Gorham, Jonas A. Gustafson, Usama Hamdan, Anne V. Hing, Paula Hurtado-Villa, Yamileth Nicolau, Gabriel Osorno, Harry Pachajoa, Gloria L. Porras-Hurtado, Lourdes Quintanilla-Dieck, Luis Serrano, Melissa Tumblin, Ignacio Zarante, Daniela V. Luquetti, Roland D. Eavey, Carrie L. Heike, Jonathan G. Seidman and Christine E. Seidman.Genetics research is important to our rare community for so many reasons! As a mother, I can’t tell you how important it is to know about genetic information for our rare cause. This information helps give mothers some peace of mind that they did not do anything during their pregnancy to cause their child’s ear(s) to be missing as well as helping provide some of the missing puzzle pieces when it comes to microtia for our community!

Barbara McDonough – thank you for always taking the time to meet with me and catch up and for always being so welcoming and excited to discuss all things microtia! Thank you for helping change people’s lives with your work and with Drs. Jon and Christine Seidman, everyday!❤👂

More information on genetics research for microtia, along with our published papers, can be found on our Ear Community Organization’s website at:  https://earcommunity.org/genetic-research-on-microtia-and-aural-atresia/

Thank you,
Melissa Tumblin
Ear Community 

 

Filed Under: Events, History

Ear Community presents at the American Cleft Palate Craniofacial Annual Meeting in Boston

April 1, 2026 By Leave a Comment

Advocates Melissa Tumblin, Amy Schefer, Dina Zuckerberg, Marly Eugenio and Melissa McGowan present at the Annual ACPA Meeting in Boston during March 2026.

I am grateful for the opportunity to have attended and participated in the American Cleft Palate Craniofacial Association (ACPA) Meeting that was held in Boston last week! Each time I attend this annual meeting, I feel as though it is a second home for me, coming together with existing friends in the craniofacial field and making new friends each time.

While at the ACPA meeting, I had the opportunity to present along side four incredible advocates, sharing about our journey, what we have learned, struggled with and overcome, including the work we are doing to help give back to the community. What an honor it was to present along side these following incredible women advocates: Amy Schefer, Dina Zuckerberg, Marly Eugenio and Melissa McGowen! Each one of us is dedicated to creating change in our communities that will help make things easier for the next family that has a child born with a rare cause. A special thank you to Amy Schefer for submitting our abstract for our panel presenation so each one of our voices could be heard for the communities we serve! Thank you to the ACPA for spotlighting our panel in the captured moments of this year’s meeting and for creating a platform for medical professionals and advocates to share their voices, together! Thank you for everyone’s advocacy!

At ACPA, I embraced connecting with the Vanderbilt team I have worked with over the years with microtia and atresia. I am always happy to see members of our CARE Research team who have worked very hard on collaborative research for our microtia and atresia community over the past five years together. It is always wonderful to see Ear Community friends from Nemours Children’s, Seattle Children’s, Nationwide Kids, and Old Dominion U and of course everyone at the ACPA! THANK YOU to the ACPA for creating a much needed platform and a place for collaboration where medical professionals and advocates can come together to share our voices and work! Thank you for everyone’s advocacy!

It is always wonderful to be brought together throughout the craniofacial world as an advocate! Advocates come in all shapes and sizes and what we offer is often priceless!

I always look forward to seeing the incredible advocates in our community that include patients themselves as well as some pretty incredible organizations that help those in need, creating a home for so many! Whether it is a mother’s love for her child or a child who has overcome struggles along their journey, but is now advocating for others just like them – we all have a common goal of providing help, support, community and compassion that will ultimately lead to helping make someone else’s life easier or sharing the journey of hope and learning from each other.

Here’s to the advocates at ACPA and in the combined communities who make incredible change and provide the hope and help when in need! Advocates also include medical professionals and representatives who help market medical technology that can help make our lives better and along side researchers, writers and volunteers. Thank you for everyone’s advocacy – always! Thank you to the ACPA for always creating such a professional meeting for the craniofacial field and community! Executive Director Adam Levy always does such a great job for the ACPA!

The following are just some of the many friends and faces that I always appreciate seeing at meetings like ACPA! Choose kind! ❤👂

Thank you,
Melissa Tumblin
Founder – Executive Director
Ear Community

Filed Under: Events, History

Microtia and Atresia picnics offered through the Ear Community Organization for summer of 2026

April 1, 2026 By Leave a Comment

Ear Community’s picnics are coming up this summer and we look forward to seeing so many of our beautiful microtia and atresia families come together on one of our special days!

Our Ear Community picnics are priceless and FREE! For the past 16 years, our Ear Community Organization has been bringing our microtia and atresia families together so the kids can play and maybe make a new friend, parents can share their journeys and so no one ever feels alone with microtia and atresia!

* Please RSVP to Lauren at LaurenEarCommunity@gmail.com

Summer of 2026 Picnic Line up:
Brookline, MA – Saturday, June 6th
San Diego, CA – Saturday, June 13th
Jeffersonville, IN – Saturday, June 27th
San Antonio, TX – Saturday, July 11th
Broomfield, CO – Saturday, July 25th

Join us for lunch and a day of fun with face painters, balloon artists and magicians! We’ll learn about the latest in bone anchored hearing devices thanks to Cochlear Americas, MED-EL USA and Oticon Medical! We’ll also have our microtia glasses at our picnics thanks to Ear Community’s Pax’s Eyewear Fund and our friend, James Hermsen of SuhHermsen Adaptive Eyewear Solutions who designs these glasses for microtia kids along side Dr. Donny Suh! We’ll have medical professionals joining us so everyone can find the answers they are looking for including Su-Por educating on the porous polyethylene implant used in auricular reconstruction ! We’ll also have some anaplastologists joining us as well to help educate us about prosthetic ears! It will be a wonderful day to come together and learn about your options when it comes to microtia and atresia!

* Our Colorado Ear Community picnic this year is in collaboration with Dr. Sheryl Lewin! Please click on the following link for conference registration details with the Earicle’s Conference!

A HUGE THANK YOU to our Ear Community picnic hosts for bringing their community and our families together at this year’s events!
The Furze Family
The Smyth Family
The McClellan Family
The Quesada Family

The Parcher Family

A special thank you to all of our Ear Community Sponsors for helping make our special days possible for our community and for helping support the good work our Ear Community Organization does for our community!
See everyone soon!
Ear Community 👂❤️
Filed Under: Events, History

Oticon Medical Undergoes Successful Ownership Transition Following Acquisition by Impilo

April 1, 2026 By Leave a Comment

Gothenburg
31 March 2026

On Tuesday, March 31st, 2026, Oticon Medical is pleased to share that Demant has successfully finalized the agreement with Impilo, transferring ownership of Oticon Medical to Impilo and marking the beginning of a new strategic chapter for the organization.

The acquisition positions Oticon Medical to further accelerate innovation, strengthen its market presence, and continue delivering life changing bone anchored hearing solutions (BAHS) to patients worldwide.

The agreement includes a long-term collaboration between Oticon Medical, Impilo, and Demant, ensuring continuity and advancing joint development of next generation Ponto and Sentio sound processors, alongside continued manufacturing, and supply partnerships.

For customers, partners, and patients, the transition brings full operational continuity—daily operations, local sales structures, and customer support remain unchanged.

“Impilo shares our values and vision, and as our new owner, brings the investment and strategic focus needed to further strengthen our position in the BAHS market,” says René Govaerts, President & General Manager, Oticon Medical. “We are confident this partnership will help us continue delivering exceptional solutions and support.”

“We are delighted to partner with management on the acquisition of Oticon Medical to accelerate growth, drive innovation, and further improve patient outcomes. The company has established itself as a leading player in the attractive and underpenetrated global BAHS market and has strengthened its position with the recently launched transcutaneous product, Sentio, which has already demonstrated impressive results. We are deeply impressed by the management team’s expertise, their ability to deliver outstanding patient support, and their unwavering commitment to improving patient outcomes. We look forward to our partnership with management and to the journey ahead, advancing the development of cutting-edge BAHS solutions that will further enhance the lives of patients.” says Magnus Edlund, Partner at Impilo.

Oticon Medical remains dedicated to delivering solutions that elevate hearing and enrich lives. With a clear vision ahead and the support of its new owner, the company is poised to advance boldly into the next era of growth and innovation.

 About Oticon Medical

Oticon Medical is a global company in implantable hearing solutions, dedicated to bringing the power of sound to people at every stage of life. For more than a decade, we have made bone anchored hearing systems more accessible by simplifying the treatment for physicians, audiologists, and patients alike.

We believe that patients and hearing care professionals should be able to choose the best possible solution at any time along the patient journey. We call it “Freedom of Choice” and it has always been paramount to Oticon Medical. This is the reason why our solutions are designed to be compatible whenever possible. As a result, an implant from Oticon Medical stands as a true testament to our unwavering lifelong support.

We work collaboratively with professionals to ensure that every solution we create is designed with our users’ needs in mind. We have a strong passion to provide innovative solutions and support that enhance quality of life and help people live life to the fullest – now and in the future.

Because we know how much sound matters.

About Impilo

Impilo is a Nordic investment company focused solely on investments in lower-mid-market Nordic healthcare companies. It seeks majority buyouts of privately held companies across the pharmaceuticals, MedTech, specialist pharma services and other healthcare & related services industries. Target companies must contribute to the positive and sustainable development of the markets in which they operate, as well as have a credible path to becoming a market leader in their respective niche. Impilo has a well-diversified portfolio of healthcare investments and manages approximately €2 billion of capital from leading international investors.

Filed Under: Events, History
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