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Getting It Right First Time in ENT

Andrew Marshall, a Consultant ENT Surgeon at Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, visited 126 departments across England before publishing his recent ENT surgery national report for the Getting It Right First Time (GIRFT) programme. Here, he explains how identifying unwarranted...

Mapping the financial and disease burden of hearing loss and associated interventions

The prevalence and burden of ear and hearing disorders is huge and, historically, has been underappreciated. Globally, unaddressed hearing loss poses a growing public health challenge, requiring urgent attention from policymakers, health professionals and civil society. The recently published World...

Aerosol research and performance

Is singing safe? This was a question asked around the world at the start of the pandemic in early 2020. Natalie Watson and Chris Orton tell us about a rapidly-convened research group that led to profound changes in UK Government...

Otolaryngologists and audiologists are invited to learn about and lead efforts to reduce the global burden of hearing loss

IFOS promises to be a multidimensional meeting, with contributions from speakers from all corners of the world covering a huge array of subjects. We hear about how the global health aspects of hearing loss will be covered in the congress....

Adult hearing screenings has counselling opportunities

Adult hearing screening has its challenges, particularly time constraints. Because the process itself is brief, we could efficiently screen dozens of adults per hour; at events such as health fairs, it’s tempting to march people through screenings as quickly as...

Case studies – transformational benefits of using connecting hearing aids

While hearing aids can provide great benefits there remain some challenging situations for people with hearing loss. These include listening in background noise, groups, using the telephone and listening to TV / music. Hearing aids with integrated wireless functionality allow...

Scientific advances in mapping syndromic hearing loss

From more than 22000 genes that we humans have, approximately 3000 genes are associated with human communication. There are tens of syndromes which have been identified to be accompanied by hearing loss. Disorders of almost every organ of the body...

Neural plasticity and aural rehabilitation

Neural plasticity refers to an ability of the brain and central nervous system to change their structure and function or their reorganisation in response to environmental cues, experience, learning, behaviour, injury and / or diseases and treatments. Neural plasticity is...

Music and single-sided deafness: challenges and solutions

Music is an integral part of many of our lives, providing entertainment, relaxation and a backing track to our past experiences. In this overview, Gemma Crundwell and David Baguley examine the impact of SSD on the perception of music and...

What’s new in the cochlea?

Prof Furness in this article rounds up the steps and leaps being made by the scientific community to develop therapies to support, rejuvenate and / or replace the cochlear structures. David’s electron microscope images of the cochlear structures are world...

What’s new in genetic testing for hearing impairment?

Often the first question following the diagnosis of a hearing loss is ‘why?’ In this article Ali Danesh explores the advances made in uncovering ‘why’ from a genetics perspective. Ali describes the panel of genetic tests now commercially available to...