Andro Kosec, Department of ORL&HNS, University Hospital Center Sestre Nilosrdnice, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, Croatia.
Taking place every two years, the European Federation of Audiology Societies (EFAS) focuses on audiology and related sciences. This year, 346 specialists from 46 countries from Europe, Asia, North and South America, Africa, and Australia attended the first in-person post-pandemic EFAS congress, under the presidency of Robert Trotic, Head of the Croatian Society of Audiology and Phoniatricians, Director of the Otology and Neurotology Department in the University Hospital Center Sestre Milosrdnice Zagreb and Academic Professor at the University of Zagreb, Croatia.
Four working groups looked at school-age hearing screening, auditory processing disorders, audiology and intellectual disability and standardised data formats for big data in audiology. The six keynote speakers were Wouter Dreschler (Netherlands), Luis Lassaletta (Spain), Daphna Ari–Evenroth, (Israel), Andro Kosec (Croatia), Cas Smits (Netherlands) and Georg Mathias Sprinzl (Austria), while the seven structured sessions covered topics including the impact of COVID-19 on audiology and neuroelectronic interfaces. That was in addition to two panels – on audiology in Southeast Europe and communication disorders – as well as 158 oral lectures in 17 thematic units and 56 poster presentations in four groups in five halls.
At the congress, the EFAS Lifetime Award was given to Professor Stig Arlinger (above left) from Sweden, who was the first president of EFAS and a prominent scientist and expert in the field of audiology for many years. During the congress, the general assembly of EFAS was held, where Robert Trotic from Croatia was confirmed as the elected president of EFAS for the next two years. With him, in the EFAS Board, will be the elected vice-president of EFAS Vinay Swarnalatha Nagaraj from Norway, past-president Liat Kishon-Rabin from Israel, secretary-general Stefan Stenfelt from Sweden and treasurer Dorothe Veraguth from Switzerland.
The 16th EFAS congress was a successful platform for widening knowledge, improving practical skills, and introducing new information on audiology in everyday practice. The EFAS 2025 congress will be in Vienna, Austria, under the chairmanship of Georg Mathias Sprinzl, and EFAS 2027 will be in Odense, Denmark, under the chairmanship of Tobias Neher.
