ENT nicely combines the clinical, diagnostic and surgical aspects of medicine, Dr. Gordin says, adding, "I like surgery, and I like the combination of pathology and a solution."

In Rochester, Dr. Gordin received the tools to plan and conduct research trials using a basic-study group and a control group, he says appreciatively. He used animal models to explore changes in the brain and inner ear responsible for age-related hearing loss.

In Toronto, he was responsible for the ENT Service of the Paediatric and Neonatal ICU and, in addition, performed basic and clinical research.  "SickKids is a center for all Ontario's approximately 13 million population; the amount of cases, and complicated cases, is huge. All the more advanced cases come there, so the exposure is amazing! I saw things that in my limited time as an ENT specialist in Israel, I had never seen but [only] knew about from textbooks, and these cases I saw every week. I also performed surgical procedures that I had never done before – for example, pediatric airway procedures using endoscopic laser, cochlear implants for hearing, and operations for chronic middle ear problems or congenital head and neck tumors.

"There are many things not yet done in our hospital," he continues energetically, laying out his plans. "The equipment in my department is forty years old. The microscopes are old – not optimal, but you can live with it. But there are things [lacking] that are so obvious -- for example, camera screens; here, everything is through the eyepiece. We also lack endoscopic equipment for treating foreign bodies ingested or aspirated into the airways or lungs." He intends to build the department through referrals for evaluation and treatment from community health clinics and district hospitals, he says, and to centralize all pediatric ENT surgical services in one location, adding, "I hope that in [Rambam's planned] Ruth Children's Hospital, ENT will have a designated area."