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Staying safe during endoscopic ear surgery

There is growing interest in using rigid endoscopes rather than traditional operative microscopes to perform transcanal middle ear surgery. Rigid endoscopy provides a high resolution, wide-angle view of the tympanic cavity through minimally invasive surgical portals. In this article, Elliott...

Radiology of referred otalgia

Otalgia is a common presenting complaint to Ear Nose and Throat Departments. Otalgia is either primary or secondary (referred) [1]. Referred otalgia is a ‘red flag’ symptom and can be a diagnostic challenge for clinicians and radiologists as the pathology...

Are ENT patients who research their symptoms online better informed?

All our patients look up their symptoms online before they visit us, don’t they? And patients who do so are better informed than those who don’t, right? Well, that’s not actually the case… The ‘information era’ More information is now...

Use of automated audiometry for faster patient access to audiology services?

Manual audiometry has long been the gold standard for establishing hearing thresholds. In recent years, a number of automated audiometry applications have reached the market. In this article, a team from Ireland have put a version of automated audiometry to...

Why hearing above 8 kHz matters more than you think

This review explores the significance of extended high-frequency hearing loss (above 8 kHz) and why it may be worth doing clinically more frequently. There are many conditions that may hide underneath a normal audiogram, and one of the easiest to...

Benchmarking for innovation in healthcare ­– an approach from 
Down Under and a gap in the 
National Health Service?

Benchmarking is a process of comparison between the performance characteristics of separate, often competing, organisations intended to enable each participant to improve its own performance [1]. Often, in healthcare, benchmarking is carried out by central government departments or regional agencies...

Developmental stuttering: a speech-motor impairment with sensory aspects

In treating patients who stutter, understanding the effects of sensory input (i.e. auditory input) can help to direct therapeutic approaches. Sensory processing has been identified as a contributory factor in several diagnoses, notably autism and ADHD [1], however it has...

Patient-centred audiological rehabilitation: facilitating and hindering factors for implementation

Introduction Patient-centred care in the health sector is a worldwide concern [1, 2]. Patient-centred rehabilitation is characterised by availability, appropriateness, preference, and timelines [3]. A consensus report by the Institute of Medicine [4] defines a patient-centred approach as ‘providing care...

Continuing professional development

In this article Siobhán Brennan explores continuing professional development (CPD) in all its glory! She outlines why it’s important to continue learning throughout our careers, highlights some of the challenges facing those trying to undertake CPD and discusses the variety...

Standards for Safe Listening – how they align and how some differ

The ‘Make Listening Safe workgroup’ is an initiative of The World Health Organization (WHO) in the framework of the World Hearing Forum and is committed to creating a world where nobody’s hearing is put in danger due to unsafe listening....