Page 14 - Outstanding Women Friendly Physicians (2)

Dr. Erik Viirre By Judith A. Habert

Photo by Lisa K. Miller

Dr. Erik Viirre’s entrance into the medical field
may have been unusual to those who knew
him growing up in Canada, but his family
clearly understood his interest. As a young
boy he suffered from severe bouts of asthma
and pneumonia, and since there was no other
doctor in the family, his parents can only attri-
bute his strong desire to go into medicine as
a direct result of spending most of his child-
hood around physicians and hospitals.
It might be expected that, given his child-
hood, the last thing Dr. Viirre would want to
do was spend his life in the medical field,
but it had just the opposite effect. By the
7th grade Dr. Viirre knew he wanted to be a
doctor. He went to medical school in Canada
at the University of Western Ontario. Being a
self-proclaimed geek, Dr. Viirre jumped at the
opportunity to participate in the newly formed
joint MD/PhD program. “This allowed me to
fulfill both my geeky science urges by doing
research, while following my quest to be a
doctor. I’ve been very lucky in my life and a
large part of it was that I was born in Canada
and received most of my medical training at
no cost.”
Doctor Viirre notes, “My quest has been to do
interesting and important work at the same
14 time as serving patients. It was through my
PhD work on the inner ear balance function
that I ultimately ended up getting some sub
specialty training in what we call Neuro-otolo-
gy, which is what my specialty is. I handle the
medical end of this specialty, referring my pa-
tients to Neuro-otology surgeons if needed.”
Although his high school yearbook pro-
claimed his path in life would be as a heart
surgeon, he quickly realized that his real
interest lie in studying the brain, particularly
how the brain controls and keeps movements
of the eyes accurate. “In the brain there are
very precise systems so when you have an
eye or ear disease it creates dizziness. To
provide an analogy you can liken this system
to driving a car. When a car has wheels
which are out of alignment the car doesn’t
feel like it is driving straight. So my patients
with these problems often feel that their
bodies are not driving straight. Just like a car can be realigned, your Patients.” After 15 years at UCSD, Dr Viirre has realized
the brain has a similar ability to be fixed and get back on track that there are times when it is crucial to choose your words care-
repairing the balance system so we can go back to feeling per- fully. He explained this to his audience with the following sce-
fectly aligned. This is the area I focused on for my PhD.” nario. “I have very carefully chosen the words I use while talking
When asked about advances in his specialty of medicine Dr. with patients. As an example, I see many patients who have
Viirre shares, "A lot of innovations have been made over the last inner ear viral infections. The most common virus that causes
century in the area of Neuro-otology, primarily over the past 20 the infection is herpes simplex one. If I use the word herpes
years. One of the ways I try to help my patients is to fully explain some patients get very upset. Then I have to tell them that, yes
their disease. Understanding their diagnosis helps patients get they do have herpes, but it is also known as the cold sore virus,
better in a number of ways, especially when they feel motivated so instead of alarming my patients, I choose my words very care-
to work towards the progress I know they can make.” fully and tell them they have the cold sore virus. The truth is just
Dr. Viirre recently participated as a speaker at a conference on about every US adult has the cold sore virus in their body, often
dealing with dizziness, for other physicians who were involved hiding in the facial nerves, which can result in cold sores, and in
in this specialty. Part of his session focused on “How to Talk to some cases inner ear viruses.