Declan Costello, MA, MBBS, FRCS(ORL-HNS),
Consultant Ear,
Nose and Throat Surgeon,
Wexham Park Hospital,
Slough, Berkshire, UK.
E: d.costello@nhs.net
TW / X: @Voicedoctor_uk
As the clock passes midnight and we welcome in 2026, we wish all our readers a Happy New Year, and we hope you have a successful and enjoyable 12 months ahead.
Medical meetings, courses and conferences take many forms, and they have evolved a great deal over the last few decades. The purely didactic lecture-based format has been augmented with practical sessions on surgical techniques, talks by experts from other disciplines, and coordinated sessions with industry and research partners. I have just returned from a meeting that was in a format I had not encountered before: the Advances and Controversies in Laryngology meeting was held in Chicago and involved a small group of 40 participants, with the focus on group discussions around the room. There were no ‘lectures’ in the traditional sense, but there was a free-flowing set of conversations about various topics. The ability to bounce ideas around the room (we were sitting in a circle) was a real eye-opener, and led to very honest and open discussions. It is a means of running a meeting that I would definitely advocate for other gatherings. Chicago lived up to its reputation as the ‘windy city’, with -8°C temperatures and a bitter wind.
As we mention meetings, the calendar for 2026 will be a very busy one: of the many international gatherings, we at ENT & Audiology News will be attending CEORL-HNS (Gothenburg, April), BACO (Glasgow, July), IFOS (Istanbul, September) and the BAA (Liverpool, October). You can pick up a copy of the magazine in January at EROC 2026 – head to our global distribution partner Widex’s booth, number 32. Readers can look out for a report on the EROC meeting in our upcoming eNewsletter and print issue. Those attending the 20th National ENT Masterclass® in London in January can also collect a copy of the print magazine there.
As ever, this Jan/Feb 2026 features a host of fantastic articles from authors around the world. I was particularly struck by Prof Carl Philpott’s recent MACRO Trial, which has just been published in The Lancet – many congratulations to Carl. This major trial in the UK looked at different treatment options for chronic rhinosinusitis. I have been chatting to Carl, so check out the video interview here.
Hot on the heels of the BAA conference in November 2025, we feature an article by Marlene Bagatto, who was a keynote speaker at the conference.
In our Newsround section, we welcome a new audiology editor, Yovina Khiroya-Morjaria – we’re very happy to have you on the team!
Here at ENT&A, we have many plans for 2026 – in particular, keep an eye out for our ever-popular supplements, which will cover topics as varied as Auditory Diagnostics and AI Applications, Laryngology and Snoring, and the second instalment of the How I Do It supplement.
If advertisers are interested in getting involved with any of these, please do make contact with Rosaleen (Rosaleen@pinpoint-scotland.com) or Rhian (Rhian@pinpoint-scotland.com).
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