Friday 10, January 2025

Kate started by going through some key highlights of what has happened since our last meeting, which included our photo and story are up in Southampton City Centre, Guildhall Square, our website has been updated and that unfortunately we have some unsuccessful grant applications.

The objectives for the meeting outlined were to:

• Highlight and discuss upcoming opportunities.
• Discuss new and ongoing projects.
• Discuss hearing loss in children and young people.
• Discuss Bethan Impey’s research study.

Kate outlined some upcoming public engagement opportunities for group members to get involved with. Emily Arbuthnot, new director of University of Southampton Auditory Implant Service joined the meeting to introduce herself to the group and share an opportunity with group members. We then moved on to our first activity which was to discuss deafness and hearing loss in children and discuss an ongoing and a new project idea for a funding application. Kate talked through the CHIEF (cochlear implants and inner ear inflammation) study. The aim of this study is to identify differences in inflammation in the ear between children and young people at the time they undergo cochlear implantation. We will be recruiting children and young people who are undergoing cochlear implantation at Royal Manchester children’s hospital. On the day of surgery, multiple fluid and tissue samples will be collected for analysis. We will be following the children for up to 5-years post implantation to measure their hearing outcomes with the implant.

Kate outlined the need to improve long-term hearing outcomes in children and young people following implantation and highlighted the gaps in our knowledge about the links between immune biology and hearing (both aided and unaided).

We discussed how we could analyse samples and data from the CHIEF study to better understand whether inflammation in the body plays a role in hearing outcomes following implantation. Group members shared their ideas and asked questions about this project idea. After a useful, science-heavy discussion we had a coffee and pastry break.

To kick off the second half, Tracey briefly outlined an ongoing project we are working on which is to set up a research database called AudiLOG using existing patient data from USAIS. Callum Findlay is in the process of writing an ethics application to apply for National ethics to set up this database. We discussed the potential issues with providing consent to access existing clinical data and asked the group what their thoughts on this were.

We then moved on to our second main activity which was to discuss the project plans for a project titled: Exploring the links between hearing loss and an enhanced susceptibility to developing anxiety led by Bethan Impey and gather feedback from the group. Bethan outlined the design of the study and went through some of the finer details with the group. Group members shared their thoughts and asked plenty of useful questions.

After a jam-packed meeting, we closed the meeting by reminding group members to volunteer for the upcoming opportunities, if they are interested and highlighted that our next meeting will be on Monday 7^th April.