Dr Somaia Tawfik, is a Professor of Audio Vestibular Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. She is practising clinical evaluation for patients with audio vestibular disorders. Her main area of interest is auditory processing disorders in children, adults and the elderly. Currently, she is a board member of the audiology committee of International Association of Logaoedics and Phonetics (IALP), a member of the International Association of Physicians in Audiology (IAPA) and the Egyptian Audio-Vestibular Medicine Association (EAVMA). She developed Arabic central auditory tests for adults and children and shared in the development of the first Arabic computer-based remediation programme for children with auditory processing disorders. She is working on developing an internet programme for auditory processing disordered children.
The main work undertaken by Somaia is clinical evaluation of patients with hearing problems as well as training of audiologists in other universities and the ministry of health. There is around 500 audiologists in Egypt, who all serve in different areas. They are performing evaluation of children, adults and elderly with audio vestibular disorders. The practice in Egypt has extended to perform central auditory evaluation. The rehabilitation services include hearing aid fitting. The cochlear implant programme began in 1994 at Ain Shams University, Cairo. It extended all over Egypt with implantation now over 1000 children and adults.
