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Being a doctor abroad – comparing the Greek healthcare system with the NHS

Healthcare systems and training programmes vary significantly across the world. By learning about other healthcare systems, we can identify blind spots in our own system and continue to improve training. Sofia Anastasiadou, an ENT Registrar in South West England, describes...

Jarrod Homer and Stuart Winter: Development of the sixth edition of the UK multidisciplinary head and neck cancer guidelines

Head and neck cancer care is a complex and constantly evolving field. What’s new and how are national guidelines on the subject produced? We spoke to Professors Homer and Winter, the lead authors of the most recent edition of the...

‘Want an upgrade?’ Moral distress in audiology

Ethical practice in audiology has become a hot topic in recent years, particularly in the independent sector where sales can be linked to commissions. Andrea Simpson has explored this issue in her research and shares her insight into the drivers...

Barriers to cochlear implantation in low resource settings

The benefits of early detection and rehabilitation of hearing loss in children, especially through cochlear implantation, are unequivocal. However, access to these valuable resources is far from equal and universal. Identifying the barriers is the first major step in addressing...

Rapid genetic testing to avoid hearing loss in neonates

Thousands of newborn babies could avoid a lifetime of hearing loss thanks to a new rapid genetic test. In this article, we learn how. We have demonstrated for the first time that a rapid genetic test from a cheek swab...

Deaf identity is not cookie cutter shaped: a CI user in a hearing world

Sam Burgess tells us what deaf identity means to her as a service manager in a busy healthcare library, with a cochlear Implant. To begin with, I have been deaf since birth due to congenital rubella. I have not known...

The death of Attila the Hun, a 70s film and Japanese cartoons

The 6th century Gothic monk, Jordanes, tells us that Attila the Hun, the notorious and allegedly merciless barbarian (who was a prime mover in the fall of the Roman Empire), died of a nosebleed on his wedding night in 453...

The artificial eardrum: how an eggshell membrane fed a German ENT family

In the pre-antibiotic era, purulent otitis media often resulted in a permanent eardrum perforation with hearing loss. In addition to pig or fish bladders, eggshell membranes and cigarette paper were used as eardrum prostheses. I have vivid personal boyhood memories...

From battlefield to homefront: how the First World War shifted perceptions of deafness

The First World War marked a pivotal moment in the understanding and treatment of hearing loss and deafness. Prior to the war, deafness had been largely attributed to congenital causes. This view was influenced by a negative eugenic Darwinist ideology...