Global recognition for the work of Professor Mahmood Bhutta

Professor Mahmood Bhutta, Chair of ENT Surgery and Professor of Sustainable Healthcare at Brighton and Sussex Medical School, University of Sussex, is the recipient of both a prestigious international award and a grant for his pioneering work on ear disease around the world. 
 
In July, Prof Bhutta was awarded the 2024 Nikhil J Bhatt International Humanitarian Award by the American Academy of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery. This award honours a non-US otolaryngologist-head and neck surgeon who has selflessly treated people for whom access to care would have been financially or physically prohibitive. Prof Bhutta has a particular interest in providing care to those in low-resource areas affected by chronic suppurative otitis media 
 
In September, he has also been awarded a £3m global health grant from the UK National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) to develop community-based models of ear and hearing care with academic partners in Malawi, Zambia and Cambodia. This will include trials in villages in Zambia and Malawi exploring self-care for those with chronic suppurative otitis media, such as iodine drops for ear discharge and low-cost non-implanted bone-conduction devices for hearing loss. It will also include development of digital sign language dictionaries in Cambodia, Zambia and Malawi.  
Prof Bhutta previously trained the first ear surgeons in Cambodia at the Children’s Surgical Centre in Phnom Penh. The team he trained was made up of all women – a fact celebrated throughout the country as well as internationally as an example of women's empowerment. 
 
“I am pleased that both the American Academy and the UK NIHR through these awards have recognized the huge burden of ear disease around the world, and the effects this has on the mental and physical health of people, often for people living in the most challenging of socio-economic circumstances,” says Prof Bhutta. “I feel privileged to work in this space, and these awards really belong to the many people I have worked alongside and who have inspired and challenged me to push this agenda forward.”