Virtual meeting: 21st International Symposium on Recent Advances in Otitis Media

Dr Tal Marom

Dr Tal Marom is a graduate of the Faculty of Medicine in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. After completion of his Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery residency at the Tel Aviv University, he pursued a post-training fellowship that was conducted at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, TX, USA, where he specialised in the field of pediatric infectious diseases. He is now the Head of the Pediatric Otolaryngology Unit at the Samson Assuta Ashdod University Hospital, affiliated to the Ben Gurion University in Israel. His main research area is otitis media and its complications. He is an Editorial Board member of several professional journals: European Archives of Otorhinolaryngology, Clinical Otolaryngology and Pediatric Infectious Diseases Journal. 

Matthew Smith

Matthew Smith is currently Senior Fellow in Skull Base surgery, Hearing Implants and Otology in Manchester. He completed otolaryngology training in the East of England, including the regional Otology Fellowship in Cambridge. He undertook a PhD in Cambridge exploring the diagnosis and treatment of Eustachian tube dysfunction, and continues to conduct research in this field. Matthew has led both clinical and laboratory research studies, delivered educational research and collaborated in novel medical device development. He is co-Chief Investigator for the NIHR-funded STARFISH trial assessing the efficacy of steroid treatment for sudden sensorineural hearing loss. Matthew founded the East of England Trainee Research collaborative, and is a founding member and recent ex-Chair of INTEGRATE, the UK National ENT Trainee Research Network.

Professor Colin Bingle

Colin Bingle is Professor of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology in the Department of Infection, Immunity and Cardiovascular Disease at the University of Sheffield. His work employs molecular cell biology techniques to address questions relating to epithelial cell specific differentiation within the respiratory tract in its widest sense and has a focus on host/pathogen interactions. In the past 10 years his interests have moved through the nasal passages into the ear and he has begun to study the biology of the middle ear. His work in this area uses comparative genomic approaches coupled with in vivo and in vitro studies designed to better understand the pathophysiology of otitis media. He is also Editor-in-Chief of Biochemical Society Transactions, the reviews journal of the Biochemical Society.

Professor Isaac Macharia

Prof Isaac Macharia is Professor of ENT Head and Neck surgery at the Department of Surgery, University of Nairobi , with expertise in children and adult ENT Surgery, and special interest in Otology and Hearing impairment. He is the founder Chairman of the Cochlear Implant group of Kenya (CIGOK). He has been the technical Lead of the Technical working group that developed the Kenya National Strategy for Ear and Hearing care and was instrumental in starting the East ,Central and Southern Africa Forum for Ear and Hearing care. He has served as an Executive member of IFOS and also as the IFOS Regional Secretary for Africa and the Middle East. He has also served as a member of various WHO Expert committees on Ear and Hearing Care. 

Dr Chris Brennan-Jones

Chris Brennan-Jones is a clinical audiologist and researcher focused on improving outcomes for children with ear and hearing disorders. He is an NHMRC Research Fellow, Head of the Ear Health research team at Telethon Kids Institute, a senior audiologist at Perth Children’s Hospital and clinical associate professor at the University of Western Australia. He is the principal investigator for the Djaalinj Waakinj Ear Portal project which brings rapid access to ear health care for Aboriginal children via telehealth in Western Australia and a leads a suite of Cochrane reviews examining interventions for chronic suppurative otitis media. In 2020 was named as the WA Premier’s Early Career Scientist of the Year for his work to improve ear and hearing health of children in WA through the implementation of telehealth research in the community. 

Munir Kureshi

Munir is a practising veterinarian from California. He has performed endoscopic diagnosis and treatment of ear disease for over 23 years. He trained in a number of centres of excellence in human endoscopic ear surgery including Harvard Medical School, Stanford Medical School, UT Dallas, Seattle Science Foundation and the University of Minnesota School of Medicine, and subsequently adapted the technique to veterinary medicine. He is a member of the American Association of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery – and was an invited speaker and faculty member at the 2019 World Congress on Endoscopic Ear Surgery. Munir, along with Prof Mood Bhutta, has pioneered a number of techniques in veterinary otology. 

Professor Mahmood Bhutta

Professor Mahmood Bhutta is Consultant and Honorary Clinical Professor in ENT Surgery in Brighton, UK, and Chair of the 2021 Otitis Media conference. He undertook his PhD looking at genetic susceptibility and the role of hypoxia in chronic otitis media. His interest in otitis media has expanded to include systematic reviews of treatment, and models of service delivery particularly in low resource countries. Here he will discuss his work on otitis media in companion animals, in collaboration with Dr Munir Kureshi.