ENT features
Welcome to BACO Liverpool: a city with deep roots in ENT
Liverpool is a city steeped in ENT history, so it is fitting that BACO is being held there once more. Ray Clarke, former editor of ENT and Audiology News, casts his eye over the historical legacy of that fine city....
BACO: The Master’s role
Ian Mackay is this year’s BACO Master, with Valerie Lund taking over for the next meeting. As the senior overseer of the conference, the role of Master is a crucial one, and Ian tells us how he has gone about...
Academic BACO 2015
Putting together the academic programme for BACO is a monumental task. Academic Chairman Shakeel Saeed and Peter Andrews, the Academic Secretary of the conference, tell us how to make it a success. Conference season is nearly upon us, and Liverpool...
Ronald G Macbeth – the instigator of BACO
The structure of BACO has changed dramatically since the first conference in 1963, but the fundamental elements of academic excellence, instructional sessions and social events have been common threads. Andrew Freeland, who worked with Ronald Macbeth, the instigator of BACO,...
Reflections on organising the British Academic Conference in Otorhinolaryngology 2015
As the Local Host and Programme Director of BACO 2015, Andrew Swift is a pivotal person with local knowledge and contacts. He provides us with some top tips as to how to go about organising a successful conference. The ACC...
Young Consultant Otolaryngologists Head and Neck Surgeons at BACO 2015: symposium on the future of ENT
What does the future hold for ENT surgeons in the UK? Leaders of our specialty aim to provide insight based on current guidance and personal experience. The programme will be of interest to anyone wishing to gain an insight into...
The doctor – pharmaceutical company relationship
‘Which drug rep is taking us out tonight?’ We have heard this phrase uttered at conferences since meetings began, but as Dylan said ‘those times they are a changing’ thanks to the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) and...
A small company’s perspective
In this article, we hear from Alan McNulty, Director from Sheffmed, an SME (Small – Medium Enterprise), who have supplied surgical instruments, consumables and video systems to ENT clinicians for over 12 years. Alan outlines some of the choices and...
Industry interaction with the ENT speciality
I was enormously grateful for the chance to articulate my personal thoughts on ‘the industry interaction with the ENT clinical community’. To set a context, the term ‘industry’ refers to medical technology manufacturers and suppliers, in addition to pharmaceutical companies....
NHS collaboration and partnership with the pharmaceutical and medical devices industries
Historically the relationship between industry and the NHS has been a cautious one. Both sides have typically worked with only partially disclosed agendas, under a pervading fear of finding themselves on the wrong end of a win-lose negotiation. Things have...
Training in the use of medical devices – how should it be done?
Adequate training in novel medical devices is imperative, not only to ensure patient safety, but also to give clinicians the confidence to use the device in question. In this article, Andrea Gillies explains the philosophy of one of the equipment...
The structure and function of DNA
DNA structure and replication Genetic information within multicellular organisms, including man, is stored in molecules of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which reside within the chromosomes of each cell nucleus. A DNA molecule consists of two very long chains, or strands, of...


