ENT Conference in Napier

4 November 2005

ENT Conference Opens in Napier tomorrow

Over 60 of New Zealand’s leading Otolaryngologists (ear nose and throat) and Head and Neck surgeons will attend the 58th Annual Scientific Meeting of New Zealand Society of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (NZSOHNS) in Napier this weekend.

The conference, which opens at the War Memorial Conference Centre on Marine Parade tomorrow (5/10) will run until Tuesday November 8.

Opened by eminent surgeon Professor Randall Morton the conference will feature well-known novelist, newspaper columnist and “Books In Homes” advocate, Alan Duff as guest speaker. Since its inception the Alan Duff Charitable Foundation has distributed books to over 83,000 children in 435 New Zealand Schools. Each child has received a minimum of five books a year.

Professor Morton says the conference promises a range of excellent and exciting papers with prestigious speakers from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Britain and Ireland.

“This is probably the most comprehensive meeting for Head and Neck Surgery yet to be held in New Zealand. Conference themes include thyroid cancer, parotid gland surgery, management of tracheal airway problems, and governmental involvement in head and neck cancer,” he says.

Otology (the study of diseases of the ear) is also well represented, with topics up for discussion such as universal newborn hearing screening, the treatment of acoustic neuroma, cochlear and auditory brainstem implants.

Keynote speakers are Professor Pat Bradley, National Lead Clinician for Head and Neck Cancer for the English National Health Service; Robert Briggs, Head of Otology at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital; Vince Cousins Principal Specialist Otolaryngologist – Head and Neck Surgeon at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne; Bill Fee, Professor of Surgery at Stanford University Medical Centre; Ron Goodey, President of the Deafness Research Foundation at Auckland Medical School; Professor Patrick Gullane, Otolaryngologist-Head and Neck Surgeon from the University of Toronto, and Professor Alan Kerr acclaimed Otolaryngologist and Neurotologist from Northern Ireland.

ENDS

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