Eiji Yanagisawa, MD International Visiting Scholar (IVS) Endowment

Your charitable gift to the Eiji Yanagisawa, MD Endowment will support the annual award of an IVS, named in Dr. Yanagisawa’s honor. Ken Yanagisawa, MD, endowed this IVS to honor his father’s deep commitment to encourage outreach, worldwide collaboration, exchange of information, and education among those in the otolaryngology community.

The Eiji Yanagisawa, MD, IVS will be awarded to a meritorious international otolaryngologist (of a country other than the US or Canada) enabling him/her to participate in the AAO-HNSF Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO^SM, and engage in a two-week observership at a U.S. Center of Excellence.

The AAO-HNS foundation’s Eiji Yanagisawa, MD International Visiting Scholar (IVS) Endowmenthonors Dr. Yanagisawa’s deep commitment to encourage outreach, worldwide collaboration, exchange of information, and education among those in the otolaryngology community.

We thank you for considering this invitation to honor Dr. Yanagisawa and make a difference for years to come by investing in the future of young international otolaryngologists.

Born in Japan, Dr. Yanagisawa attended medical school at Nihon University School of Medicine and graduated in 1955. He came to the United States on a Fulbright Travel Grant beginning his Otolaryngology residency at Yale under Dr. John A. Kirchner, then section Chief of Otolaryngology. He has remained in New Haven, CT where he has had a profound influence on the training and development of over 100 Yale residents from the 1960s to the 2010s, encouraging their participation in clinical research and publishing original articles. Resident education was his driving “mission.”

Retired in January 2013 as Clinical Professor of Surgery, Section of Otolaryngology, Yale University School of Medicine., Dr. Yanagisawa also worked tirelessly and diligently for over 50 years in his private practice.

He has made contributions locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. Dr. Yanagisawa lectured frequently in the U.S. and abroad. He authored and co-authored 356 original articles, 80 book chapters, and four books. He held 19 scientific exhibitions and created 77 teaching videotapes.

In 1999, Dr. Yanagisawa was the recipient of the Presidential Citation Award, in 2003 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy, and in 2012 he received the Academy's Distinguished Service Award. Honorary Membership was granted by the Nihon University School of Medicine, Japan (2000) and the Japan Broncho-Esophagological Association (2000).

Many of his achievements revolved around his work in photographic and video documentation in otolaryngology. Dr. Yanagisawa’s passion for photography fueled many post-official work day hours in his home-based video production studio creating new methods for capturing images to improve diagnosis, document best practice in procedures, and train new generations of otolaryngologists. He produced a vast collection of images which he gifted to the AAO-HNSF. This body of work is now benefitting members as two outstanding clinical and educational resources: the AAO-HNSF-ENT Image Library and the popular ENT Image Viewer.