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Presentations - health


2006

What's new in Otitis Media?

A symposium titled "What's new in Otitis Media?" was held at the Menzies School of Health Research in April 2006. This is a summary of proceedings and power-point presentations for most of the presentations.

Session 1
1a. Epidemiology of OM - Hasantha Gunasekera
Has gave an overview of the global burden of childhood otitis media following a systematic review of incidence and prevalence data from the international literature. His presentation also addressed the prevalence of the complications of OM and risk factors for OM.
View presentation

1b. Population based conductive hearing loss management strategies for OM in high risk populations - Kathy Currie
Kathy gave an in-depth presentation about a proposed model of care based on the burden of conductive hearing disability. She defined and described conductive hearing disability and attempted to use existing data on OM prevalence in the NT to predict the level of services required to meet the needs of Aboriginal children in the NT. She highlighted the need for better data about hearing loss before planning can take place to develop services for hearing conservation.
View presentation

1c. Ear Toilet. The ins and outs - Keith Edwards
Keith gave an overview of the importance of ear toilets using tissue spears, including why this method is better than other methods of clearing pus from the middle ear and ear canal, and how it is performed. The importance of doing it right is stressed. The power point presentation goes on to explain the correct method for putting drops in the ear.
View presentation

1d. Ear Health and Hearing Research Transfer - Susie Hopkins
Susie gave an overview of a project aimed at increasing the accessibility of evidence based information for people working in the area of, and affected by, Aboriginal ear health and hearing problems. The project consists of the development of the Australian Indigenous EarInfoNet and EarInfonetwork, a web resource and National Network. The project will eventually address both health and education issues but is in it's infancy and needs mush more development before it is a comprehensive resource as planned. For more information about the project go to this 2 page brochure View brochure (PDF):
The web resource and Network can be accessed at: http://www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au/ears
View presentation

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Session 2
2a Mucosal immunity and otitis media - Alan Cripps
Currently we do not have approval to post this summary. It will be made available when approval has been given.

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2b Dynamic models of pneumococcal carriage and the impact of the PCV7 on invasive pneumococcal disease in the UK - Yoon Choi
Yoon described a study where the aims were to evaluate the impact of the introduction of PCV7 (Prevnar) for infants in the UK on invasive pneumococcal disease and to compare different vaccination strategies. The effects of 3 different vaccine strategies were simulated using mathematical modelling to predict the impact of the different strategies prior to the roll out of Prevnar vaccination in the UK. It also aimed to estimate the extent of replacement of VT with NVT after Prevnar was introduced and the sensitivity of the model to parameters.
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2c The PneuMum Study - Ross Andrews
Ross gave an overview of the PneuMum study design. PneuMum aims to find out if pneumococcal immunisation of mothers in the last few months of pregnancy or at delivery can prevent ear disease in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infants.
For a brief summary of the study click here:
View summary

2d Pneumococcal Protein vaccination developments reported at the 5th International Symposium on Pneumococci and Pneumococcal Diseases (ISPPD5) - Heidi Smith-Vaughan
Heidi gave a brief overview of where development of pneumococcal protein vaccines are up to noting that they are a priority because they are able to protect against all serotypes of pneumococcus, are immunogenic in children and are cheaper to produce compared to current conjugate vaccines. She described several different types of protein vaccines, whole-cell vaccines and polysaccharide mimics presented at ISPPD5. She also reported that Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) launched a new vaccine development effort to prevent pneumonia globally with the aim of saving 1million children every year. A $US 75 million dollar grant has been donated by the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation to accelerate the development of pneumococcal vaccines for developing countries.
View presentation

Session 3
3a Global Action Plan Against Pneumonia - Jonathan Carapetis
Jonathan outlined the Global Action Plan Against Pneumonia which was launched at ISPPD5. There are 3 main components of the plan: Improving case management using the "Integrated Management of Childhood Illness" (IMCI) model; vaccination (currently available vaccines and vaccine development) and; reduce risk factors including poor nutrition and exposure to smoke particularly from household cooking. This is also a call on major international agencies to support this plan.
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3b Otitis media treatment and prevention - update summary of clinical trial outcomes in high risk populations - Peter Morris
Otitis media treatment and prevention - update summary of clinical trial outcomes in high risk populations - Peter Morris Peter gave an overview of otitis media in remote Aboriginal communities in the NT. Results from the many studies that have been implemented by the Menzies Ear Health and Education Unit have provided this data. The role of clinical trials is briefly addressed. Important findings include the role nasopharyngeal carriage plays in otitis media, the difference between the symptoms in this population compared with other populations, and the importance of looking at the question of whether treatment outcomes in this population are really that different to other populations. He privides some suggested conclusions about the way forward and a summary of findings from the various projects to date at the end of the presentation.
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3c Jirnani Child Care Centre Ear Health Awareness Programme - Ngiare Brown
In her presentation, Ngiare described the community driven Jirnani Child Care Centre Ear Health Awareness Programme and findings of it's evaluation after one year of implementation. While data did not conclude that the programme was improving ear disease, implementation factors were seen as potentially responsible for this finding. For example, 2 staff training sessions took place in 12 months when training sessions were meant to be every 2 months. The evaluation concluded that if the Programme were to continue that the processes should be reviewed and that ongoing support is essential to its success.
View presentation

3d SEARCH. Study of Environment on Aboriginal Resilience and Chidl Health - Hasantha Gunasekera
Has briefly described the SEARCH study, which will investigate the relationship between environmental determinants of health in Aboriginal Australians. It will consist of a cross-sectional study of approx. 800 urban Aboriginal families in NSW and approx. 2000 children. It will also include a randomised control trial of a "health broker" (whose role will include supporting and assisting families in their health care interactions). Lastly it will include a cohort study with a 5 year (and possibly 20 year!) follow-up. Has will be specifically looking at otitis media and hearing outcomes within the study population.
View presentation

This information about the symposium has been provided by Menzies School of Health Research. Permission was granted by Menzies School of Health Research to reproduce the presentations.

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2005

Conductive hearing loss and classrooms, research, policy and practice
This presentation gives an overview of conductive hearing loss and how it affects children's ability to listen in the classroom. It also provides details of auditory processing problems that may result from middle ear disease. It focuses on the educational effects of conductive hearing loss in Aboriginal children because of the high incidence of otitis media (middle ear disease) in this population. Research-based strategies that have been effective in promoting learning in this population are briefly described.
(View presentation (PDF - 985KB)) The conference presentation has been reproduced here with the permission of Damien Howard.

Rope B (2005)
Communication access for people with hearing/deafness disability.
Paper presented at the Disability and criminal justice conference, Melbourne
View paper (This presentation is not Indigenous specific)

2003

Coates H (nd)
Aboriginal and middle ear health
Presentation at the National Newborn Hearing Screening Conference (nd)
View presentation

Couzos S (2003)
The NACCHO ear trial: Aboriginal community controlled clinical research. Community controlled, not just community based.
Paper presented at the 7th National Rural Health Conference. 1-4 March 2003, Hobart, Tasmania
View paper (PDF)

Williams C (2003)
Otitis media and Indigenous Australians.
Paper presented at the 2003 Speech Pathology Australia National Conference May 2003, Melbourne
View paper (PDF)

2000

Sinclair A, Jacobs A (2000)
Otitis media.
Paper presented at Aboriginal Health 2000: Cultural partnerships - unified in health, 29-30 June 2000, Perth
View HealthInfoNet abstract

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Last updated: 18 September 2006