Villwock, Jennifer MD

Dr. Jennifer Villwock is a Professor of Otolaryngology, a fellowship trained rhinologist and anterior skull base surgeon and the Vice Chair for Research for the Department of Otolaryngology at University Hospitals in Cleveland, Ohio.

She is passionate about accessible innovation to improve patient care. Examples of this include her research, which has led to the creation and patenting of AROMA (Affordable, Rapid, Olfactory Measurement Array). This is a novel objective olfactory test that is significantly more cost effective and designed for real-time integration into a clinical workflow. Using AROMA as a noninvasive biomarkers of dementia and cognitive decline is the focus of her recently awarded $3.8M grant from the NIH. She is leveraging a similar approach to sensory dysfunction to identify traumatic brain injury severity and recovery trajectory in a CDMRP/DoD $2.4M grant.

Dr. Villwock has also created the Activities Based Checks (ABCs) of Pain, an infographic-style functional pain scale to improve communication about pain between patients and their care teams while decreasing the cognitive load associated with the completion and interpretation of existing pain surveys. She was selected as a finalist in the NIH National Institute on Aging’s inaugural Health Aging Challenge and Entrepreneurial Bootcamp for her work with AROMA. Dr. Villwock subsequently won the Audience Choice Award at the 2023 Alzheimer’s Association pitch competition and was a finalist at the AARP AgeTech Collaborative at ViVE2023 Making Aging Easier pitch competition.

RESEARCH PROGRAMS

• Creation and patenting of AROMA (Affordable, Rapid, Olfactory Measurement Array

MAJOR PROJECTS & FUNDING

• Activities Based Checks (ABCs) of Pain

HONORS & RECOGNITION

• 2023: Audience Choice Award, Alzheimer’s Association pitch competition