2019 Tinnitus Expo in London on 14 September

[Hazel]

Considering how many people have tinnitus, and how many are severely bothered by it, it's surprising to learn how few tinnitus related events, workshops, conferences there are. As a tinnitus patient, there's hardly anything on offer. In most countries that is, because if you live in the UK (or are willing to travel there) you can attend the annual Tinnitus Expo organized by the British Tinnitus Association (BTA).

Read more about the Expo and book your tickets here. The event will be held in London on Saturday the 14th of September.

There will be talks that are research and treatment focused, as well as practical workshops where you can for instance learn to meditate. And if none of that is your cup of tea, it's a chance to engage with other tinnitus patients, researchers, clinicians, and BTA staff.

While Tinnitus Talk was not involved in organizing this event, we will be attending it and manning a stand. It's a great opportunity for us to connect in-person with other tinnitus patients. @Hazel and @Steve will be there, possibly with one or two other volunteers. So, if you're coming, let us know, and we'd love to meet you!

 

[glynis]

@Hazel,

Sorry I won't be going as it's too far and am not used to busy train stations on my own.

Give @Steve a big hug from me and I know you both will do Tinnitus Talk/Hub proud.

All my love glynis xxx

 

[Contrast]

I see a red flag when hyperacusis and misophonia are grouped together in the same talking session.

https://www.tinnitus.org.uk/the-programme-expo

It's obvious it's going to take needles and pins before the clinical world takes the "hyperacusis patient" seriously. I can already tell it is going to be heavily biased towards Mr. Jastreboff's school of thought. At best it'll be short oversimplified information about hyperacusis, at worst it's a misinformation campaign with the goal of selling wearable hearing aids.

 

[Hazel]

It's obvious it's going to take needles and pins before the clinical world takes the "hyperacusis patient" seriously. I can already tell it is going to be heavily biased towards Mr. Jastreboff's school of thought. At best it'll be short oversimplified information about hyperacusis, at worst it's a misinformation campaign with the goal of selling wearable hearing aids.

We'll try to take some notes and let you know if your suspicions are right.

 

[Hazel]

Hi all,

I got back from London two days ago where I attended the conference and the Expo, together with @Liz Windsor and @Steve. I'll give you my quick assessment, more will follow.

The conference is mainly aimed at practitioners, i.e. audiologists, ENTs etc. It's focused on giving them practical tools and information. Difficult topics were not shied away from; there was for instance a session on tinnitus and suicide and how to deal with suicidal patients. I definitely commend BTA for taking up such a difficult and sensitive topic. The downside for me was that there were hardly any researchers present, and the presentations hardly included any cutting edge research. I understand on the one hand the focus on what's available/possible right now, because that's the daily reality for healthcare providers. On the other hand, it would be nice to see practitioners be more educated on new and emerging treatments, even if they're not available yet, because their patients will certainly be asking about this.

The Expo day was intended for patients seeking help; probably it was successful in that regard, certainly for people who don't yet know much about the condition or where to get help - that group will probably have gotten a lot out of it. For us the presentations were not so interesting to be frank, so the added value of the day was more in engaging with other tinnitus patients and trying to help/support them where possible.

Attached are some photos of the events, and also a summary of the two presentations that for me were most interesting, by:
Christopher Cederroth, on finding a genetic marker for tinnitus;
Eleni Genitsaridi, on identifying tinnitus sub-types through big data.

We will try to write up some more reports. And I also took pictures of all the posters that were submitted by academics (mainly it seemed from Nottingham University), and can share these if anyone is interested.

Cheers,
Hazel

 

[Chriscom]

Thank you for this update Hazel, and for the PDF of the presentation. There's no substitute for showing up at these things and some of them are just going to be more substantive than others.

 

[Rajin]

Thanks! Hopefully something good come up soon. Great work.

 

[Hazel]

Update: I added one more presentation to my post above, check it out!