MR MICHAEL KUO

I am an ear, nose and throat surgeon with an interest in children’s ENT disorders and I have specific expertise in paediatric head and neck diseases, thyroid swellings, abnormalities of voice, breathing problems and hearing disorders. I also contribute to the multidisciplinary paediatric cleft lip and palate programme. At the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, I provided a general adult otolaryngological practice from 2001 – 2010. Combining my passions for music and surgery, I collaborated with speech therapists and a voice consultant to provide a laryngological service to professional voice users. I graduated from the University of Birmingham and was trained in otolaryngology on the West Midlands Higher Surgical Training Programme. I am a fluent Cantonese speaker, and have also trained under Professor William Wei at the University of Hong Kong. I have visited several centres of excellence including the Johns Hopkins University as an Ethicon Fellow, the Boston Children’s Hospital and the Chicago Children’s Memorial Hospital. As one of the first surgical research fellows supported by the now famous Royal College of Surgeons of England research fellowship programme, I undertook research in the molecular genetics of head and neck cancer leading to a PhD in 2000. I continued my research as a joint Medical Research Council / Royal College of Surgeons of England Clinical Training Fellow. For my research work, I was awarded the BMA Albert McMaster Award (1998), the Xomed-Treace Prize (1999) and the Angell-James Prize (2000). In 2001, I was elected to a Hunterian Professorship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. I am committed to both under-graduate and post-graduate clinical teaching. From 2001-2008, I coordinated the teaching programme in paedatric otolaryngology and with Paul Pracy, co-founded the Birmingham-Bristol Intercollegiate Examination Course in Otolaryngology, which is now in its tenth year. From 2005-2008, I chaired the education and training committee of ENT-UK and since its inception, I have been on the foundation faculty of the British Paediatric Otolaryngology Course. I also contributed to continued professional development in otolaryngology as vice-president of the section of laryngology and rhinology of the Royal Society of Medicine and the honorary secretary of the British Association for Paediatric Otorhinolaryngology. I chair the Education Committee of the European Society of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology. I serve as the only UK member of the Editorial Board of The Laryngoscope. Recently, I was appointed to the Board of the European Board Examination in Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery. The board examination seeks to harmonise standards in ear, nose and throat surgery across Europe and has made considerable strides in that direction over the past five years. Despite my various academic pursuits, my main professional interest is in direct patient care.