ENT and audiology in the Land of a Thousand Hills

Rwanda is a beautiful country known as the ‘Land of a Thousand Hills’. It is located in the Great Rift Valley in East Africa and shares borders with Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, all offering direct...

Public Health Planning for Hearing Impairment (2022)

The World Report on Hearing, published in 2021 by the WHO reports that 430 million people in the world have moderate or worse hearing loss, all of whom require rehabilitation [1]. Over 1.5 billion have any degree of hearing loss....

Advances in ear and hearing telehealth

Telehealth in ear (or tele-otology/tele-audiology) and hearing care has steadily increased as an area of both research and clinical interest over the past 15 years [1]. Driven by rapid advances in connected technologies and wide-ranging potential use cases, telehealth had...

Charitable hearing care in Pakistan: establishing the IMRA Cochlear Implant Programme and Middle Ear Project

IMRA, the International Medical Relief Agency, is a registered charity providing volunteer-delivered cochlear implant and major ear surgery to children and adults in Pakistan. Established in 2001 by UK-based ENT surgeons led by Mr Haroon Khan, its primary aim is...

Cambodian Children Surgical Centre: a junior’s perspective

The Children’s Surgical Centre (CSC) is a Non-Governmental-Organisation (NGO) hospital situated in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. CSC was developed for landmine victims over 20 years ago by Dr Jim Gollogly after the dark period under the Pol Pot...

In conversation with Robin Youngs

Members of ENT UK (The British Association of Otolaryngologists and Head and Neck Surgeons) have a long tradition of humanitarian work in countries in Africa and Asia (see article with Professor Davis Howard in previous issue for example). The ENT...

The delivery of ENT services in Mongolia: what are its obstacles?

Globally, the burden of ENT disease is great. Disabling hearing loss (DHL) for example, is reported to affect half a billion people worldwide. The majority of afflicted individuals live in lower and middle-income countries (LMIC) [1]. This article, a collaboration...

What happens to donated hearing aids?

According to the WHO, only 3% of people in developing countries who require hearing aids have one. Over the years many people, organisations and companies have donated old hearing aids to charities. Bhavisha Parmar, an audiologist who volunteered with Sound...

Preventing avoidable deafness and death from ear disease in Ethiopia

In the July/August edition of the magazine, we featured an article on humanitarian work in Ethiopia, focusing on head and neck surgery. Continuing this theme, Misha Verkerk tells us about an international collaboration providing otology care and training in that...

In conversation with Dr Naufal Kassim

Jane and I first met you six years ago, when we were questioning the apparent high incidence of childhood deafness in Tanzania, and it is a real pleasure doing this interview with you. Your contribution to ENT and general health...