The inaugural Australian Otitis Media (OMOZ) workshop, Darwin, 25–26 May 2010, was well timed. The workshop — held in the same month that the Australian Senate tabled its report, Hear us: inquiry into hearing health in Australia1 —
brought together 70 of Australia’s leading otitis media (OM) researchers. The workshop reinforced that OM is a major concern in Australia, identified important research advances, and highlighted future research areas and strategies for long-term interventions. As emphasised in the Senate report, findings from conferences on hearing health should be made publicly available. The purpose of our report, therefore, is to share the main findings from the OMOZ workshop with the broader community of OM researchers, health care professionals and policy leaders.The full article is accessible to AMA members and paid subscribers. Login to read more or purchase a subscription now.
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* Note: First two authors are joint first authors.
We thank Michael Alpers for critically reviewing this report. We acknowledge the independent medical writing assistance provided by Luke Carey and Karen Woolley of ProScribe Medical Communications, funded from a grant from GlaxoSmithKline. GlaxoSmithKline was not involved in drafting the article.
Lea-Ann Kirkham, Selma Wiertsema, Heidi Smith-Vaughan, Ruth Thornton and Robyn Marsh were members of the OMOZ Workshop Organising Committee. Educational and travel grants were provided by GlaxoSmith Kline (GSK) and Wyeth Vaccines (WV) to facilitate organisation of the OMOZ workshop. All authors have received travel grants from GSK and WV. Deborah Lehmann has been a consultant for GSK. Amanda Leach has received funding from GSK, WV and CSL, and is the primary investigator of a National Health and Medical Research Council-funded randomised controlled trial that will evaluate the efficacy of vaccines manufactured by GSK and WV. No financial support from these companies has been or will be sought. Peter Morris has been a consultant for GSK and has received funding from GSK, WV and CSL. Peter Richmond has been a consultant for WV and has received funding from GSK. GSK and WV did not control or influence the decision to submit the final manuscript for publication.