Public Health Workshop in Pakistan
Hearing impairment needs a public health response because its causes and consequences are many and varied. The specialist skills needed for this task were the subject of the Public Health Planning for Hearing Impairment Workshop (PHPHI) in Pakistan held by the HHA and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Coming from across Pakistan, 12 hearing healthcare professionals attended 5 days of intensive training. They heard from 14 leading experts from Pakistan and around the world including Dr Shelly Chadha, Technical Lead for Ear and Hearing Care at the WHO.
Launch of 2nd PCHR, Karachi
Following the success of the first Professional Certificate in Hearing Rehabilitation in Pakistan, another cohort of 10 speech language pathologists started the one-year intensive training programme at Ziauddin University Karachi between 3 and 6 December.
2nd Rehab Course in Pakistan
It was a pleasure to welcome a new eleven-strong cohort to our Professional Certificate in Hearing Rehabilitation in Pakistan. The online orientation session introduced participants to each other and the MED-EL experts who will be teaching the course. The year-long programme will continue with in-person workshops in Karachi in December. This is the second PCHR course to run in Pakistan following the success of the first course in Lahore. Participants will study the theory and practice of hearing loss rehabilitation over four week-long workshops.
International Otology Workshop in Poland
Three leading ENT surgeons from Islamabad and Lahore, Dr. Azeem Aslam, Dr. Najeeb Tallat and Dr. Imran Saeed, participated in the 73rd Window Approach Workshop organized by the Institute of Physiology and Pathology of Hearing at the World Hearing Centre in Kajetany, Poland. The internationally well-known otology workshop took place on September 18-19 and was hosted by the world-renowned ENT surgeons Prof. Dr. hab. N. med., Dr. h.c. multi Henryk Skarżyński and Prof. Piotr Henryk Skarżyński, M.D., Ph.D., MSc.
“CI in Emerging Nations” Conference in Istanbul
ENT professionals from all over the world gathered in Istanbul to discuss how to improve access to hearing healthcare at the international conference “7th World Congress of Cochlear Implantation in Emerging Countries”. The Global CI Access Network hosted the 3-day conference between September 14 and 16 together with experts from all partner countries. Delegates presented on the key pillars of the Hearing Healthcare Alliance by giving examples of their implementation in their respective region.
PCHR Graduation & PCFS Start
The first one-year PCHR training program in Pakistan successfully finished between 16 and 19 July. In the fourth and final session, held in-person at the Pearl Continental Hotel Lahore, Joanna Shepherd and MaryKay Therres from MED-EL reviewed videos of the participants’ therapy sessions and discussed the outcomes of the final exam. On the last day the certificates were handed over to the graduates in a festive ceremony.
Audiology Workshop & Needs Assessment
From all over Pakistan, thirty professionals came to Lahore for the second Audiology Updates Workshop at Pearl Continental Hotel. New strategies for daily work with patients were shared over two days, and Alejandra Kontides equipped participants with the latest advances in audiological practice. The special focus was put on objective measurement methods in a fitting workflow and on the importance of understanding the intersections of Audiology and Speech Language Pathology for the successful speech development of a child.
PCHR Touchpoint “Family Education & Translation Projects”
Giving families the skills to help children with hearing impairment develop speech was the focus of a recent PCHR Touchpoint in Pakistan. This meeting began a deeper training and mentoring program on the important role of families in the speech and language development of their children. As a first stage the Professional Certificate in Hearing Rehabilitation participants will start adapting relevant (re)habilitation resources for the training of concerned families in Pakistan.
New-born Hearing Screening for Karachi
Four experts from Ziauddin Hospital Karachi will expand new-born hearing screening services in Pakistan’s most populace city. Over a week of training from various experts including Dr Nadeem Mukhtar, Dr Nouman Shah, Dr Mehdi Muntazar Raza, and Amber Rashid, the participants gained the skills to conduct the new-born hearing screening pilot programme in the city. At the conclusion of the training, the hospital was presented with both hearing screening and diagnostic devices.
TBL Support for the University of Lahore
Dissecting the temporal bone gives ENT surgeons the opportunity to examine the delicate anatomy around the ear and practice critical procedures for restoring hearing. On Sunday May 28 five ENT surgeons from Pakistan participated in a Temporal Bone Workshop conducted by the ENT department of the University of Lahore. The Workshop took place in the TBL training facilities which have been newly upgraded by the Hearing Healthcare Alliance to enable a state-of-the-art training for the participants.