First, I am a man, a male doctor, as you can see in my picture. Although the name Andrea is a typical name for women in other countries, in Italy it is a very common name for a man (do you know Andrea Bocelli?).
 

I'm an Italian doctor and researcher in the field of Inner ear disorders. I was born in Rome, Italy, 57 years ago. I lived and worked in Italy for most of my life. Currently I am living in South East Asia, but actually being able to work online and travel at the same time in any country, I do it (or I did it… before the pandemic!). 
 

I became Doctor in Medicine and Surgery in 1989, and since 1993 I'm a specialist in Otolaryngology. I have dedicated at least the last 25 years to understand and treat tinnitus, sensorineural hearing loss, vertigo, dizziness and Meniere's Disease, still considered by many colleagues because of laziness, superficiality, lack of interest or prevailing commercial aims, “the dark side of otolaryngology”.

I always looked further to develop more effective therapies for the treatment of endolymphatic and perilymphatic hydrops of the inner ear, the most common but most underestimated cause of these disorders, rejecting every cliché, but performing researches with scientific skepticism and pure application of logic.

What I can offer, as the result of years of scientific research on several thousand patients, and dozens of different diagnostic tests, often personally designed or modified for the purpose, involving also specialists from other disciplines, is an effective treatment to help many patients. But not everyone because real permanent damages remain untreatable, although never provable.

To start the therapy, already since 2009, I do not need diagnostic tests anymore because they are not useful for me to decide the approach with the single patient. Hydrops is always present and confirmed with tests, but no test can tell us if it is also the reason for symptoms or if there are also damages. But symptoms can. In many cases, the damage is excluded already by the symptoms.

What we require instead, and what is usually neglected, is a correct assessment of the patient and not just of the ear. We need to care about the real impact on his/her life arising from the disorders and even take in account the actual psychological condition, that is critical because the hydrops is a situation where stress plays a leading role. Nowadays (and since 1999 at least) in fact, the relationship of the anti-diuretic hormone (ADH), a stress-related hormone, with the inner ear fluids and hydrops is well known. This hormone is the main target of my therapy against the hydrops.

Having overcome the need for specific tests, I can get closer to patients around the world without geographical limits, offering medical advice, consultation, and assistance to the patients and their doctors worldwide, thanks to the technology. Since 2011 I offer to every patient consultation in audio-video, a much more efficient, cost-effective way and without any need to move around.  And this can be actually offered to “the world” even because I can manage a video consultation in Italian, my native language, in English, in Spanish, in French, in Russian, but at a lesser level I speak and understand many other languages. I had already assisted in this way also many Italian and foreigner patients, living in many different countries.

 

But, unfortunately, while to talk and give counselling in video-consultation is quite easy, and many doctors around the world are starting to use it, in many countries there are specific problems to export my treatment. First, foreigner doctors' medical prescription are not accepted in every country. And not everything I prescribe is available everywhere. This is the reason why what I am looking for, is not patients from other countries but... their GP's and otolaryngologists, to assist and give help locally, providing they have enough desire to care about you seriously.