My name is Spencer Payne, and I am the director of rhinology and sinus surgery in the Department of Otolaryngology, head and neck surgery, here at the University of Virginia. I developed an interest in medicine simply out of a need and a desire to help people and I really enjoyed the science and the biological aspects of disease and trying to alter what was happening with people to make them better.

I provide comprehensive care for patients who have problems with their nose and sinuses. Problems that range from nasal polyps to nasal congestion, sinusitis. Whether it's an infections or chronic inflammation, loss of smell. We offer both minimally invasive and yet also advanced surgical techniques to treat patients who may need surgical fixes for their problems. But we also have a lot of translationally based medicine that results from research done here with NIH funded labs that allow us to provide the foremost and advanced medical therapies for patients who have this disease.

I think it's important to know that there's no one therapy that works best for any one patient and as a result we spend a lot of time trying to understand exactly what the issues are with each specific person and tailor the treatment for them. I think one of the things I find the most rewarding is when patients come back to see me after we've had our initial consultation and started a trial of therapy and they can suddenly enjoy the world again because their sense of smell has been restored. I really see how much smell affects people's ability to appreciate the world around them, enhance their memories, and even just the enjoyment of their loved ones.