Deadly Ears co-founder Prof Chris Perry inducted to AMA Roll of Fellows

Queensland ENT surgeon Professor Chris Perry OAM has been inducted to the Australian Medical Association (AMA) Roll of Fellows for his outstanding contributions to the association, medicine, the community and research.

Prof Perry received the honour for ‘outstanding service to and leadership of AMA Queensland, for contribution to the federal AMA as a federal Councillor, and for distinguished service to medicine, particularly Indigenous health and ENT research.’

A consultant surgeon in adult and paediatric otolaryngology head and neck surgery in Brisbane, he works in his private ENT practice and two public hospitals — the Princess Alexandra Hospital and the Queensland Children’s Hospital. Prof Perry is also a professor at the University of Queensland, a philanthropist and Lieutenant Colonel in the Australian Army Reserve.

His induction was at the AMA Queensland annual general meeting in. May 2024 by new AMA Queensland President Dr Nick Yim.

Prof Perry, the immediate past president of AMA Queensland (2020-2022), was a co-founder of the Deadly Ears program to tackle the scourge of untreated middle ear infections in Aboriginal Australians.

In 1982, he began attending remote and rural Aboriginal communities in Cape York and saw how otitis media, and its secondary deafness and education outcomes, was maintaining the poverty cycle for First Nations Australians.

Secured funding for 20 ENT surgeons in remote communities

With his commitment to Indigenous ear health, he secured $1.6 million in federal funding to set up a program that engaged 20 ENT surgeons to travel to remote communities for three years.

In 2008, that program turned into Deadly Ears, which now leads Queensland Health’s response to reducing the rates and impact of middle ear disease and hearing loss for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children across Queensland.

Prof Perry was one of three founders of the program and continues to volunteer his time and expertise in the Aboriginal community of Cherbourg 170 km north-west of Brisbane every year.

In 2009, he was awarded the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) for services to medicine as an ENT specialist, and to Indigenous health.

From left, new AMA Queensland president Dr Nick Yim inducts Professor Chris Perry OAM to the AMA Roll of Fellows. Image: AMA Queensland.

Prof Perry graduated from The University of Queensland Medical School in 1976 and joined the AMA in 1977. He moved to the UK to study for a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. In 1980, he and his young family moved to Ghana where he worked in a two-doctor rural hospital servicing a population of 100,000 people.

He then trained for four years in otolaryngology in Australia, with further training at Royal Marsden (cancer) Hospital in London and the University of Virginia, USA.

In 1988, the Australian ENT Society recruited him to establish a national training scheme in Papua New Guinea, due to his tropical medicine training and experience in Africa. He went on to supervise ENT training in PNG for 18 years and was a visiting professor and examiner in surgical specialty examinations in the US, Malaysia and PNG. He treated soldiers at Brisbane’s Yeronga Military Hospital and as a Lieutenant Colonel, did two tours in Bougainville in a peace monitoring group.

Prof Perry is also a former councillor and director, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) Council and previous chair, Queensland RACS committee; a past president, Australian Society of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery (ASOHNS) and chairman, Combined Multidisciplinary Head and Neck Cancer Clinic, Princess Alexandra Hospital.

He was also a former director of AMA Queensland Foundation and chair of the Clem Jones Foundation of Neurobiology stem cell research committee.

During his two-year term as AMA Queensland president, which was dominated by COVID-19, Prof Perry was a vocal advocate for doctors and public health, speaking for healthcare workers and vulnerable communities about the need for vaccinations, mask wearing, lockdowns and other public health measures. He advocated for sense and compassion in border closure and hotel quarantine implementation.

During this time, he was also instrumental in AMA Queensland’s ramping roundtable, which brought together medical specialists to deliver a plan to the Queensland Government to tackle ambulance ramping and hospital bed block crisis. The government adopted many of the recommendations and committed to 2,500 new hospital beds in the 2022 state budget.

He has more than 50 papers, eight book chapters and 1,600 citations to his name.