University Hospitals Launches Sleep Surgery Fellowship
January 01, 0001
Innovations in Ear, Nose & Throat | Spring 2026
This summer, the University Hospitals Ear, Nose & Throat Institute will welcome Corissa Chang, MD, DDS, to its inaugural Sleep Surgery Fellowship, directed by Thomaz Fleury, MD, PhD.
Thomaz Fleury, MD, PhD“Our Sleep Surgery Fellowship is uniquely positioned as a standalone division within the University Hospitals Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, reflecting the institution’s commitment to sleep surgery as a true academic and clinical subspecialty,” says Dr. Fleury, an otolaryngologist and craniofacial surgeon within the UH Ear, Nose & Throat Institute. “This structure enables the fellowship to function with dedicated clinical volume, faculty and research infrastructure, while remaining fully integrated within a major academic medical center.”
Dr. Chang is currently completing her residency in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to her residency, she completed a research fellowship at Stanford University School of Medicine in the Department of Otolaryngology, Division of Sleep Surgery.
“The integration of sleep medicine, facial plastics and oral and maxillofacial surgery, combined with Dr. Fleury's research background and leadership in next-generation devices, creates a uniquely comprehensive training environment,” Dr. Chang says. “UH offers the best alignment with how I envision training and practicing sleep surgery, and I am especially excited to join a program that values multidisciplinary collaboration and innovation while remaining deeply patient-centered.”
A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Chang earned her Doctor of Dental Surgery from the University of California, San Francisco, in 2019 and completed her medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania in 2023. She is OMFS-trained and has extensive experience with skeletal and jaw procedures.
“In addition to being dual-boarded in medicine and dentistry, Dr. Chang will bring significant surgical and research expertise in sleep medicine,” Dr. Fleury says. “She is highly knowledgeable in this field, and we are excited to welcome her as our first sleep surgery fellow.”
Comprehensive Surgical Management of Sleep Disorders
University Hospitals offers comprehensive patient care and physician training across the full spectrum of sleep surgery, including:
- Skeletal Procedures: maxillomandibular advancement and craniofacial airway surgery
- Soft Tissue Surgeries: Uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, tongue base and lateral pharyngeal wall procedures
- Upper Airway Stimulation and Implantable Technologies
In addition to skeletal surgeries, Dr. Chang will have the opportunity to perform soft-tissue procedures specific to sleep apnea, including stimulator implantations. She will also work closely with the clinical sleep medicine physicians on the UH Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine team.
“From a training standpoint, Dr. Chang will work in direct and continuous collaboration with Sleep Medicine and Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, gaining a truly multidisciplinary perspective on patient selection, phenotyping and longitudinal outcomes,” Dr. Fleury says. “The fellowship also provides robust access to bench-to-bedside and basic science research, enabling Dr. Chang and future fellows to engage in translational projects that integrate imaging, neurophysiology and surgical innovation.”
Leadership in Hypoglossal Nerve Stimulation
University Hospitals has long been involved in research that has established transformative therapies for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), including Inspire® hypoglossal nerve stimulation, and continues to play a leading role in ongoing clinical trials of next-generation devices and platforms, including industry-sponsored studies with LivaNova and others.
Dr. Fleury and Kenneth Vito, MD, FACS, a board-certified otolaryngologist at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, are among a select few physicians nationwide named Inspire Physicians of Excellence for their dedication to achieving outstanding outcomes and delivering exceptional patient experiences.
Surgeons at University Hospitals will soon implant a second Food and Drug Administration-approved hypoglossal nerve stimulator.
“It is essential to phenotype each OSA patient to determine which procedure or device will achieve the best outcomes,” Dr. Fleury says. “The benefit of completing a sleep surgery fellowship is to gain experience with the full range of options we have to treat sleep apnea.”
Advancing the Future of Sleep Medicine
The field of sleep medicine has seen exceptional growth in recent years, and the number of sleep fellowships is increasing. Fellows at University Hospitals benefit from a nationally recognized program that offers high surgical autonomy, longitudinal patient care and exposure to a diverse and complex referral population.
“The combination of high-volume advanced surgery, device innovation and embedded translational research makes University Hospitals an exceptional environment for training the next generation of academic sleep surgeons,” Dr. Fleury says.
For more information, contact Dr. Fleury at Thomaz.FleuryCurado@UHhospitals.org.
Contributing Expert:
Thomaz Fleury, MD, PhD
Otolaryngologist and Craniofacial Surgeon
University Hospitals Ear, Nose & Throat Institute
Assistant Professor
Case Western Reserve School of Medicine