Physician Profile

Diane L. Sabo is the Director of Audiology and Speech-Language Pathology at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, and Associate Professor of the Department of Communication Science and Disorders in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Science, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Otolaryngology, School of Medicine, at the University of Pittsburgh.

Dr. Sabo's clinical and research interests include newborn hearing screening. She established and runs the newborn hearing screening program for three area hospitals. Over 10,000 babies per year are screened in these hospitals and all follow-up is coordinated through Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Department of Audiology. Dr. Sabo's involvement in newborn hearing screening extends to the state level where she served a three year term as one of six initial members of the PA Department of Health Hearing Screening Advisory Committee that is charged with overseeing all aspects of the newborn hearing screening program in PA. As one of two audiologists on the committee, she was asked to and wrote the initial draft of the audiologic screening and follow up guidelines. In this role, she interacted with numerous audiologists and birthing hospitals throughout the state as well as nationally since she is also a regional representative for the National Center for Hearing Assessment and Management (NCHAM), which is a technical assistant center through Utah State University. NCHAM receives funding from federal, state and private sources to conduct research, develop training materials, provide training and technical assistance and disseminate information about early identification and management of hearing loss. In her role as a regional representative, she consults directly with six states to help resolve issues, provide information, do presentations or help to find the resources to enable better function of the various states Department of Health's' Newborn Hearing Screening Programs.

In addition to newborn hearing screening, the department offers a wide range of services for both audiology and communication disorders and include programs for hearing aids fitting and dispensing, cochlear implants, central auditory processing, stuttering, swallowing and Apraxia.

Dr. Sabo is actively involved in several professional organizations including the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, The American Academy of Audiology and the Pennsylvania Academy of Audiology. She has served on numerous ad-hoc committees writing professional guidelines and documents to national convention planning. In addition, she serves as an editorial consultant for several professional journals.

Since joining Children's Hospital in 1978 as a clinical audiologist, Dr. Sabo has had numerous responsibilities within the department from program coordinator to associate director of Audiology to Director of Audiology and Communication Disorders. Since taking over the director position, Dr. Sabo's focus has been to make the department more accessible for those in need of the service.

Dr. Sabo has been actively involved in research for numerous years and has collaborated on numerous NIH grants involved in the study of otitis media and most recently, cytomegalovirus. Dr. Sabo is also actively involved in student training serving as core faculty for the University of Pittsburgh/Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Leadership and Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities (LEND) training grant from Maternal and Child Health Bureau (MCHB). She also teaches at the university and directs students in the Department of Communication Science and Disorders in their student research project and for their dissertations.