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Dr Alan Sanderson

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Biography

Alan is a Clinical Lecturer in audiology at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) and a member of the clinical audiology team at University Hospitals Sussex NHS Trust. His aim is to develop technologies, clinical services, and education to elevate quality of life for people with hearing difficulties and tinnitus. Alan’s key interests include bone conduction hearing devices, neuromodulation in tinnitus therapy, and music perception in people using hearing aids and implantable devices. He is applying his experience in clinical audiology and higher education to develop training resources for clinicians in low-income countries, which is part of a global health project established by Professor Mahmood Bhutta at BSMS.

Alan originally trained as a biologist with a special interest in genetics and electrophysiology, which informs his translational approach to clinical research on hearing and tinnitus. He completed his clinical audiology training in the Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in 2012. He then joined the Institute of Sound & Vibration Research (ISVR) at the University of Southampton as a teaching fellow, and later senior teaching fellow, where he taught undergraduate and post graduate audiology. Between 2015 and 2020 Alan completed a PhD alongside his academic and clinical work titled: Translational approaches to measurement and analysis of the cochlear implant-tissue interface.

Research

  • NIHR champion for research in audiology in the Kent, Surrey & Sussex clinical research network
  • Tinnitus therapy by neuromodulation: NIHR i4i funded project in collaboration with MindSpire
  • Development of a low-cost bone conduction hearing device for people to improve access to sound during surgical/clinical waiting times and in low-income countries where ENT and audiology services are limited
  • Establishing a study comparing audiological and quality-of-life outcomes for bone conduction and air conduction hearing devices in conductive and mixed hearing loss
  • Music for cochlear implant users: “A web-based software training tool to improve music enjoyment for cochlear implant users.” Pump-prime funded by Research England (UKRI)

Teaching

Development and delivery of teaching of ear, nose & throat (ENT) component of medicine undergraduate degree in BSMS.

Selected publications

Grasmeder M, Verschuur C, Ferris R, Basodan S, Newman T, Sanderson A. Piloting the recording of electrode voltages (REVS) using surface electrodes as a test to identify cochlear implant electrode migration, extra-cochlear electrodes and basal electrodes causing discomfort. Cochlear Implants Int. 2021 May;22(3):157-169. doi: 10.1080/14670100.2020.1863701.

Hough K, Sanderson A, Grasmeder M, Mitchell T, Verschuur CA, Newman TA. Inflammation at the Tissue-Electrode Interface in a Case of Rapid Deterioration in Hearing Performance Leading to Explant After Cochlear Implantation. Otol Neurotol. 2021 Apr 1;42(4):e445-e450. doi: 10.1097/MAO.0000000000003014.

Sanderson AP, Rogers ETF, Verschuur CA, Newman TA. Exploiting Routine Clinical Measures to Inform Strategies for Better Hearing Performance in Cochlear Implant Users. Front Neurosci. 2019 Jan 15;12:1048. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2018.01048.

Bell SL, Barker F, Heselton H, MacKenzie E, Dewhurst D, Sanderson A. A study of the relationship between the video head impulse test and air calorics. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. 2015 May;272(5):1287-94. doi: 10.1007/s00405-014-3397-4.

Engsontia P, Sanderson AP, Cobb M, Walden KK, Robertson HM, Brown S. The red flour beetle's large nose: an expanded odorant receptor gene family in Tribolium castaneum. Insect Biochem Mol Biol. 2008 Apr;38(4):387-97. doi: 10.1016/j.ibmb.2007.10.005.

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