The Pan-European Voice Conference is a multi-disciplinary event for professionals working with the human voice held every second year. PEVoC14 was postponed for one year as the regularity of conferences was attacked by COVID-19. Participants including voice scientists, physicians, speech-language pathologists, voice teachers, acousticians and students came from 37 countries.
The Estonian Music Academy, East-Tallinn Central Hospital and the organising committee allowed experts to share their scientific results and give voice to clinical and practical experiences. They gave us the opportunity to visit each other's professional areas, including the scientific, clinical, pedagogical, therapeutic and artistic fields. The conference included 40 scientific presentations, six keynote lectures, 10 panel discussions, two masterclasses, 49 workshops, two preconference workshops and 117 posters. The focus covered the voice apparatus and its function, voice disorders and their assessment and treatment, voice analysis and measurements as well as methods and approaches for voice care and training.
At the North Estonia Medical Centre Foundation, the clinical pre-conference phonosurgery workshop was chaired by distinguished phonosurgeons Yakubu Karagama (United Kingdom), Teemu J Kinnari (Finland) and Lauri Maisvee (Estonia). There was also a post-meeting session with operating surgeons and discussions of cases – anterior glottic web and glottic scar-treatment options and approaches and different operating methods.
Several scientific paper sessions and roundtables were dedicated to the assets and merits of glottoplasty technique that is nowadays a widely performed surgical method for voice feminisation. The lectures were by Ahmed Genneid and Teemu J Kinnari (Finland), and James P Thomas (USA) and Markus Hess (Germany), the last two representing the International Association of TransVoice Surgeons.
Different scientific papers focused on the positive effect of neuromuscular stimulation as well as variation of QoL aspects of vocalfold unilateral paresis/paralysis patients.
There were fresh updates and intriguing information of pathophysiology and treatment of retrograde cricopharyngeus dysfunction, or R-CPD patients: symptoms, diagnostics and treatment options by Jurjaan Snaellmann (Belgium).
PEVoC14 had a friendly and familiar atmosphere. The city of Tallinn has a unique blend of charming fairy-tale buildings and cool cutting-edge design rich in culture. It is famous for its green and easy-going atmosphere, where you can enjoy the hot summer evening with Estonian music from classical to jazz and the taste of Estonian food and a marvellous sunset on the beach.
Mare Kalvet, MD, otorhinolaryngologist, Estonia.
