David Dick MB BCh BAO MSc FRCS Ed (ORL HNS) ST8 ENT Trainee, Royal Victoria Hospital, Belfast.
The Young Auditory Implanters’ Forum (YAIF) was again well attended in the third annual meeting held in Belfast. Organised by the current president, Anna O’Kane, it was an enjoyable day of excellent free paper presentations given by consultant audiological implant surgeons and ENT training registrars.
There was a focus for the day on the difficult patient scenarios faced in implant surgery with plenty of time allocated for discussion. The wide breadth of material ranged from technical presentations on the specific benefits of hearing preservation surgery to reports of difficult cases. These reports led to interesting group discussions, such as the risks of ear canal hair singeing in the immediate post-operative period after cochlear implantation.
The trainee prize was awarded to Anne Markey, ST7, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital (right) for her presentation on promising audiological outcomes of a new implantable bone-anchored hearing device in a paediatric cohort.
The forum was again well supported by industry partners Advanced Bionics, Cochlear, Med-El and Oticon who also delivered updates on the newest options available for our implant patients.
In the final presentation of the day the incoming president of the forum, Rohit Verma (below), delivered an insightful review of his first five years in consultancy and gave the meeting food for thought before a delightful dinner in Belfast city centre. This was followed by a thorough exploration of all the culture the city had to offer.
The next YAIF meeting will be held in Sheffield on 28 June 2023.
UK-based auditory implant surgeons within five years of appointment to their substantive consultant post are invited to join the forum by contacting Rohit Verma at rohit.verma@nhs.net.
