Professor Johan Fagan delivered his Semon Lecture on the 6th of November 2020 online, in a first for the lecture series due to the coronavirus pandemic. He looked at his own experiences working in Cape Town and contrasted this with how it may be done in the United Kingdom, due to South Africa’s different financial, patient and institutional constraints. He explored eleven different clinical trials that he had been involved with, covering topics including ‘Does socioeconomic status affect quality of life after total laryngectomy?’ and ‘Is tracheoesophageal speech appropriate in a developing world community?’.
Professor Johan Fagan has spent lots of his career advancing otolaryngology in Africa and other developing countries. He has done this in a number of ways, including open access textbooks, establishing fellowship training, and establishing the African Head and Neck Society (AfHNS). As well as this, he has written guidelines for clinical practice in developing countries to help improve management in resource poor settings. He has been recognised for his efforts with an International Federation of Otorhinolaryngological Societies gold medal and the Nikhil J. Bhatt MD International Public Service Award by the AAO-HNSF.
Hello, a few weeks ago I choked whilst talking and somehow from severe coughing up to clear my airways and throat I seem to have very suddenly damaged my vocal chords. At the same time I developed burping (possibly implying acid reflux which I did not have before). My voice is quite and more whisperer and I feel I have less range and little tone or quality any more. All I have been told so far is that half my vocal chords are’not working’and that I have acid reflux. Please can you help me.