ENT UK Research Showcase highlights cutting-edge developments in the specialty
14 October 2024
(Last updated: 15 Oct 2024 16:06)
Miss Sadie Khwaja (left), ENT UK Foundation Committee Member. Miss Katie Nurcombe (second left), ENT UK CEO & ENT UK Foundation Secretary. Miss Victoria Ward (second right), ENT UK Foundation Committee Members. Professor Nirmal Kumar (right) ENT UK Foundation Chair with the Research and Training Prize finalists.
ENT UK’s annual Research Showcase event, held in York on Friday 4 October, was a huge success, with many excellent presentations and an impressive demonstration of the first-class research being undertaken by our members and within our specialty. Alongside the presentations from ENT UK’s Research Society (BOARS), attendees heard updates about the work and achievements of the ENT UK Foundation Awards recipients and the finalists of the Research and Training Prizes. These awards covered a broad range of categories, showcasing the accomplishments of ENT UK Trainee, SAS and Consultant members.
Research presentations
The morning featured a series of free paper presentations from The British Otorhinolaryngology and Allied Sciences Research Society (BOARS) and a keynote lecture from Iain Bruce on managing Acute Otitis Media. There were also presentations from the prize winners of the Dutch ENT Research society Hylke Van der Toom, on the outcomes of cholesteatoma surgery and Nick Schubert,on interdisciplinary approaches to hearing loss. It was finished with a presentation on Cancer and the Immune System, by Emma King and an INTEGRATE session on the National Tonsillectomy Study, by Lucy Li.
Congratulations to William Flynn winner of the Angel James award and to Matthew Donachie for the Best Poster Award.
Helen Cocks, ENT UK President said:
“The Research Showcase was an excellent demonstration of the high-quality original research and audit projects across the speciality. The variety of research has many possibilities for future translation into clinical practice, excellent education initiatives and patient-centred projects. I was particularly impressed by the outcomes of the ENTUK Foundation Grant Research and Education projects, which demonstrated how these funding opportunities are helping develop research and education in ENT both in the UK and Globally.”
The ENT UK Foundation Research and Training Prizes in memory of Rowena Ryan
The ENT UK Research and Training Prizes are designed to celebrate excellence within trainee-led audit, research and training initiatives. The afternoon programme of the Research Showcase began with presentations from the finalists for each category, with the winners being announced later in the afternoon. The following winners for each category were:
- Best Trainee-Led Audit: Gani Nuredini
- Best Trainee-Led Research: Nikhil Joshi
- Best Trainee-Led Teaching / Training: Kathryn Parker-Conway
- Best SFO led audit research or training: Thomas Lane
- Best SAS-Led Audit, Research or Training: Mustafa Rehan
- Best Overseas Trainee-Led Audit, Research or Training: Ankita Mukherjee
Dilen Parmar was awarded the Paper Knife Award for his presentation.
Many thanks to Ambu, DP Medical, ICU Medical, SHEFFMED and Tympahealth for their sponsorship of the Research and Training Prizes.
ENT UK and ENT UK Foundation Trainer Awards
Congratulations to Shahz Ahmed who was awarded the Best Trainee Nominated Trainer Award and Emeritus Professor Patrick Bradley who was awarded the Life-time Trainer Award. ENT UK President Helen Cocks presented the Award to Pat for his lifelong dedication to training at the meeting.
ENT UK Foundation Awards
The Research Showcase featured two keynote lectures from the Foundation, one from Bindy Sahota on the Fellowship programme in Pune, India; and the other from Mriganka De on the expanding advances in Head and Neck robotics surgery.
Several previous Foundation Grant Awardees also gave presentations on their achievements because of the funding. Gabrielle Thompson and Sadie Kwaja spoke about the development of a hearing app for mobile devices, while Jonathan Abbas discussed the use of VR technology to improve access to simulation skills training. Ashok Rokade also presented on the successful pilot of the Prof V S Rokade Visiting Fellowship in Rhinology.
Ashok Rokade said: “I had a wonderful time attending the ENT UK Research Showcase meeting in York on Friday, hosted by my Rhinology colleague, Carl Philpott. I was also invited to speak and share our experiences on the International Travelling Fellowship with colleagues. It was great to listen to engaging presentations from our ENT trainees and faculty members. It’s encouraging to see the growing interest in research, ensuring that the future of our specialty is in safe hands.”
ENT UK Foundation Research Grants
Congratulations to the recipients of an ENT UK Foundation Research Grant 2024:
- Ngan Ta: Exploring the Nexus of Olfactory Disorders and Cognitive Decline in Apolipoprotein E-4 (APOE-4) Carriers: A Pilot Case-Control Study Utilizing UK Biobank Data
- Lilia Dimitrov: Detecting Microvascular Changes in the Tympanic Membrane Using Machine Vision-Based Segmentation
- Lucy Li: National Prospective Tonsillectomy Study 2024
- William Tsang: Intracellular bacteria - the trojan horse of chronic airway disease?
- Tunde Oremule: Combination Nasal Oxymetazoline and Steroid Efficacy trial for Rhinitis (COMBI-NOSE)
- Megan Gurney: 3D printing in mastoid surgery
- Louise Kuo: Evaluating the use of a direct referral pathway for tinnitus: a single-centre qualitative study
ENT UK Foundation Education Grants
And congratulation go to the recipients of an ENT UK Foundation Education Grant 2024:
- Eleanor Crossley: A Crash Course in DO-HNS knowledge
- Aaron Hundle: Establishing recommendations for simulation training methods for ENT Junior Doctors Induction
- Alex Ashman: WENTS & Friends, a Women in ENT Surgery UK podcast: Season Two
- Bhavesh Patel: ENT Flashcards - a novel, high yield learning resource for ENT Surgeons
- Bhargavi Chandrasekar: Improving inclusivity: Providing good care to transgender and non-binary patients
- Ahmar Ahmad: Enhancing Otoscopy Training: Development of a low-cost 3D-printed Otoscopy Simulator
- Lavandan Jegatheeswaran: HoloENT: Revolutionising ENT training with a mixed-reality, low-cost, high-fidelity tonsillectomy simulation
- JiakYing Tan: ENT Advanced Surgical Skill Workshop 2024
- Livy Kenyon: Educational virtual reality middle and inner ear model
Nirmal Kumar, ENT UK Foundation Chair said:
“The ENT UK Foundation is the philanthropic and fundraising arm of ENT UK, with a mission to invest in the specialty and facilitate global innovation, thereby improving ENT healthcare for all. Now in its fourth year, the Foundation is going from strength to strength, having raised more than £200,000 in grant funds over the last three years. Our network of donors and partners continues to grow, both internationally and in the UK. This year, the Foundation was able to announce a large number of successful candidates, whose innovative projects and proposals will now receive Foundation funding.”
The exciting event confirmed ENT UK’s commitment to supporting and encouraging world-leading research included its strategy ‘Inspiring Excellence and Shaping the Future’.
Congratulations once more to all the winners and many thanks to the speakers, attendees, organisers and our exhibitors, for making this such an exciting and successful event.