Dr. Josh Yorgason, MD

Blaine ENT Dr. Josh founded Minnesota Ear & Sinus Center to provide better care to patients, with less time waiting and more time with the doctor.

Dr. Yorgason is originally from Salt Lake City, Utah.  He completed his undergraduate studies in New York City at Columbia University, with a major in Neuroscience.  He stayed in New York for medical school and graduated from Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2004.  Dr. Josh aspired to a career in Neurosurgery and matched in a program at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas, aiming to become a pediatric neurosurgeon.

“I never regretted leaving Neurosurgery, after I saw a patient have their hearing restored during an awake surgery.” 

After completing his first year in surgery, Dr. Josh took a year to do research in Los Angeles at the prestigious House Ear Institute, where the first Cochlear Implants in the US was performed.  Dr. Yorgason conducted research on drug toxicity to the inner ear and performed landmark studies showing the toxic effect of Tylenol when combined with narcotic medication to the hearing.

During this year Dr. Yorgason was able to observe surgeries for hearing loss and chronic ear disease.  After seeing patients have their hearing loss cured with surgery he was determined to obtain training to be able to perform these surgeries.  He then returned home to complete his residency in Otolaryngology(ENT), Head & Neck Surgery at the University of Utah, Primary Children’s Medical Center, and Huntsman Cancer Hospital. While in residency, he obtained advanced training with ear and sinus experts, as well as advanced training on pediatric ENT disorders.  He continued to perform research and has authored and co-authored multiple peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly publications.

Immediately after residency, Dr. Josh attended advanced courses, become a certified Cochlear Implant surgeon, and established a cochlear implant program in his practice.  He performed the first cochlear implant in an outpatient surgery center in the state of Utah.  He worked with ENT Specialists in Salt Lake City, Utah, and helped them expand their practice to the new Draper, Utah at the Lone Peak Medical Campus.  Although he had a good job, was close to family, something drew to him to pursue more training.

“Leaving an opportunity for a practice partnership, I yearned for more training, more education.”

Desiring further education and training, Dr. Yorgason completed an additional one-year clinical fellowship in Otology and Neurotology with Dr. Michael Paparella, further refining his techniques for performing surgery to restore the structure and function of the ear, and related sinus disease.  During this year of training, he also performed a clinical observership with Dr. Michael Teixido on the medical management of Migraine-associated disorders of the head and neck, including vestibular migraine, and migraine-associated sinus pain and pressure. During that year he also completed a visiting research fellowship at the University of Helsinki, Finland, where he studied the epitympanic aeration pathways in human temporal bones at the historic Palva Temporal Bone laboratory.

After his fellowship training, Dr. Josh then joined Sanford Health in Bismarck and cared for adult and pediatric patients.  He helped establish the first cochlear implant program in the state of North Dakota.  He was able to perform cochlear implants on infants and adults, as well as other surgeries for adult and pediatric ENT patients in this under-served area of the country.  He performed the first bilateral pediatric cochlear implant in the state of North Dakota, while only one of two surgeons in the state performing complex inner ear surgeries. 

“It’s all about where the ears and the sinuses meet – the Eustachian tube!”

While at Sanford, Dr. Yorgason also refined his techniques for surgery of the nose and sinuses.  He became a pioneer performing balloon sinuplasty on kids and adults, and was one of the early adopters of balloon dilation of the eustachian tube for eustachian tube dysfunction and chronic ear disease.  While becoming proficient in minimally invasive endoscopic sinus surgery, he has been on the cutting edge of endoscopic ear surgery, allowing a less-invasive surgical approach to the ear.  Desiring to return to an academic-centered private practice, he moved back to Minneapolis.