👨⚕️ Dr. M. Kumaresan — Profile & Contributions
Dr. M. Kumaresan is an ENT surgeon with extensive clinical experience, based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. He has built a global reputation in the diagnosis and treatment of puberphonia — a functional voice disorder where an individual (typically a post-pubertal male) continues to speak with a high-pitched or juvenile voice.
🧠 Clinical Achievements
World-record clinical experience in puberphonia, having treated 1,650+ patients with his methodology.
Originated his treatment focus at Stanley Medical College, Chennai after a tragic case involving a young patient who faced bullying due to his high-pitched voice — motivating Dr. Kumaresan to find effective treatments and raise awareness.
Developed a grading/voice index to characterize severity of puberphonia across patients.
Authored multiple research articles and is in the process of writing textbooks on the condition — addressing a gap in available global literature.
🗣️ Treatment Philosophy
Dr. Kumaresan’s method:
Focuses on uvula manipulation to re-pattern the vocal tract and facilitate low-pitch voice production.
Emphasizes habituation training (voice retraining) post-manipulation so patients can sustain their natural low-pitched voice.
Advocates group therapy to boost confidence and peer learning.
Treats puberphonia not just at the laryngeal level, but considers the pharyngeal vocal tract dynamics as crucial — an insight informed by his clinical observations and inspiration from anatomical symbolism (e.g., temple art indicating ear-throat connections).
🤖 AI in Identification & Treatment of Puberphonia
Dr. Kumaresan is integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into his work in two main areas:
🔍 1. AI for Early Identification & Voice Assessment
He aims to develop AI systems that can:
Analyze voice recordings to detect puberphonia characteristics automatically.
Provide quantitative voice metrics (e.g., pitch, spectral features) that help classify severity and monitor progress.
Potentially enable remote screening, expanding access for patients who can’t visit in person.
This involves training models on a database of puberphonic and normal voices to identify discriminative patterns typical of the condition.
🧠 2. AI Tools for Clinical Decision Support
Dr. Kumaresan is exploring:
AI-based decision aids that assist clinicians in choosing the most suitable treatment pathway based on voice data and patient characteristics.
Tools that can track therapy outcomes over time, giving objective feedback to both doctor and patient.
Collaborative projects with medical engineering and bioengineering students to prototype and refine these AI models for real-world use.
His vision is not just diagnostic automation, but a system that augments clinical judgment — ultimately shortening the time to diagnosis and improving treatment effectiveness.
🎯 Future Vision
Dr. Kumaresan’s long-term goals include: ✔ Scaling AI-assisted puberphonia screening globally
✔ Publishing comprehensive clinical and technical literature
✔ Training surgeons and engineers in combined clinical + AI methodologies
✔ Creating online platforms that democratize access to puberphonia care
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