The Australian Society of Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery (ASOHNS) has celebrated its 75th annual scientific meeting in Sydney. The diamond anniversary was a time to reflect on past
achievements and welcome future developments.
More than 600 ear, nose and throat surgeons from around Australia and overseas flocked to Sydney in March 2025 to celebrate 75 years of scientific advancement in the field and hear about current innovations at the forefront of the ENT landscape in Australia.
The ASOHNS 75th annual scientific meeting recognised the enormous improvements in otolaryngology and assembled a diverse group of international keynote speakers across a range of subspecialities and a dynamic group of local experts.
“It was the largest stand-alone annual scientific meeting in the society’s history,” said Ms Melissa Coward, ASOHNS membership manager. “The only time we have had more delegates in attendance was when we hosted the Asia Oceania Otorhinolaryngological Head and Neck Surgery Congress (AO ORL HNS) which is held every four years in the Asia Oceania region.”
The Australian event was at Sydney’s International Convention Centre from 28 to 30 March 2025. The Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Nurses Group conference was held in conjunction with the surgical meeting.
Renowned local and international experts shared invaluable insights and advancements in otolaryngology, head, and neck surgery.
Additionally, conference delegates participated in interactive workshops and hands-on sessions, offering practical skills and techniques to improve practice and enhance patient care.
Gene therapy, inner ear therapies and ear wearables for health monitoring were just some of the current advances discussed.
Otology sessions covered topics including:
• Cochlear MRI signal and hearing outcomes in vestibular schwannoma patients
• Cochlear implant outcomes associated with the treatment of vestibular schwannoma
• An effective and cost-saving intervention in an Australian statewide service of simultaneous bilateral cochlear implantation for children
• Insights in the immune response and genetic underpinnnings of Ménière’s disease
• The intersection of MRI and vestibular testing in Ménière’s disease diagnosis
• Cochlear implant outcomes in adults using the WHO International classification of function
• And medico-legal controversies in pre-existing hearing losses, non-work-related hearing losses and assessment of severe work-related tinnitus.
Gene therapy for deafness
The main keynote speaker was Professor Manohar Bance from the UK, a leading expert on gene therapy for hearing loss and ear surgeon at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
A clinician-scientist who runs the SENSE lab at The University of Cambridge, he is also clinically active in tertiary care otology.
His current research interests focus on cochlear implants, inner ear therapies and genetic hearing loss, and ear level wearables for health monitoring.
Prof Bance gave two key-note presentation. One was on gene therapy for hearing loss and lessons from his genetic hearing loss clinic. The other asked what could be done to improve outcomes for cochlear implants.
He made global headlines, including in Hearing Practitioner Australia, in May 2024 when he revealed he had performed a pioneering gene therapy transfer during surgery on a British baby aged 11 months with profound genetic deafness.
Six months after the single intracochlear injection delivered via a one-off infusion into Opal Sandy’s right ear, her hearing had “improved close to normal hearing levels” in the treated ear, doctors said at the time. They said results showed “dramatically improved hearing to normal levels” in Opal.
Prof Bance, chief investigator of the British segment of the gene therapy trial, said in a statement at the time: “These results are spectacular and better than I expected.
“Gene therapy has been the future in otology and audiology for many years and I’m so excited that it is now finally here. This is hopefully the start of a new era for gene therapies for the inner ear and many types of hearing loss.”
OCT for imaging the ear
Prof Bance was the inaugural Professor of Otology and Skull Base Surgery at the University of Cambridge in 2017, a role he still holds today. Before that he was Professor and Chair of the Division of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Dalhousie University in Canada.
He completed his residency in Toronto and UCLA in 1995, followed by a skull base fellowship in Manchester. He has supervised numerous clinical Fellows in Toronto, Halifax and Cambridge and many PhD and postdoctoral students.
Before this he ran a large middle ear mechanics and bone conduction hearing mechanics laboratory in Canada and developed middle ear imaging tools using optical coherence tomography (OCT).
Professor Bance has published 236 peer reviewed papers, and several book chapters.
He is immediate past president of the section of Otology of the Royal Society of Medicine in the UK, is chair of the British Cochlear Implant Group, and has received a lifetime achievement award from the Canadian Society of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery.
NOTE: On demand registration to view recordings from the meeting and attract CPD points is still available. See ASOHNS.org.au. For more information, email info@asohns.org.au
Honour for Dr Ross Harrington
A surgeon who has been a vital part of the otolaryngology community in Australia over the past 44 years received a prestigious honour at the ASOHNS meeting.
ASOHNS acknowledged Dr Ross Harrington for his services to otolaryngology, head and neck surgery in Toowoomba, Queensland with the 2025 ASOHNS Society Medal for Distinguished Service to ASOHNS.
Dr Julie Agnew, ASOHNS president presented Dr Harrington with the medal.
“ASOHNS and his patients sincerely thank Ross for his services to both regional and national otolaryngology,” she said.
Dr Harrington spent his childhood in the small outback town of Richmond, northwest Queensland, and said he had a strong belief that people could aim high, regardless of where they came from.
He graduated from the University of Queensland in 1972 and received his Fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (FRACS) in 1978, being the first registrar to train at both the Royal Brisbane Hospital and Princess Alexandra Hospital.
In 1979 he travelled to Wales for a fellowship before returning to Toowoomba in 1980 where he has been a vital part of the otolaryngology community over four and a half decades, Dr Agnew said.
Dr Harrington started an appointment as a visiting medical officer at Toowoomba Base Hospital in 1982 and resigned the position in 2024.
He was one of the first surgeons to perform endoscopic sinus surgery in Queensland, attending one of David Kennedy’s first endoscopic sinus courses in Chicago, and then helped introduce endoscopic sinus surgery to Queensland.
Dizzy and vestibular clinic
In recent years, since retiring from surgery, he has maintained a dizzy and vestibular clinic in Toowoomba and Brisbane.
He is an advocate of the VHIT (Video Head Impulse Test), a clinical assessment of the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR), and was instrumental in educating younger doctors, emergency physicians and ENT surgeons on exciting developments in dizziness and vestibular care.
In September 2024, one of his last duties as a specialist was to present grand rounds at Toowoomba Base Hospital and co-edit a paper with Professor Michael Halmagyi, Royal Prince Alfred Hospital neurologist and Professor of Neurology at the University of Sydney.
Dr Harrington is a past Queensland State Chair of ASOHNS and a director of training for Toowoomba Hospital. He was instrumental, along with Dr Garrett Fitzgerald, another founding ENT consultant in Toowoomba, in setting up a regional training position, which has now expanded to two positions at Toowoomba.
NOTE: On demand registration to view recordings from the meeting and attract CPD points is still available. See ASOHNS.org.au. For more information, email info@asohns.org.au
