Welcome

EFAS Board 2023-2025 (from left to right): Robert Trotic (Croatia, President 2023–2025), Vinay Swarnalatha Nagaraj (Norway, Vice President and incoming President 2025–2027), Liat Kishon-Rabin (Israel, Past President 2021–2023), Stefan Stenfelt (Sweden, Secretary-General) and Dorothe Veraguth (Switzerland, Treasurer).

Dear EFAS Colleagues,

It is a privilege and an honor for me to serve as the EFAS Chairperson. Two years ago, on 15th EFAS congress in Oldenburg, Germany, which was the first EFAS online congress ever, I was elected as the EFAS Chairperson for the term 2023 – 2025. Those were difficult times for all professions, including ours. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, our professional gatherings and sharing achievements were only via the web. At that time, we did the best we could and knew. But, we did not give up and our work in audiology continued. All this thanks to our EFAS Honorary Officers; Liat Kishon Rabin (Israel), Birger Kollmeier (Germany), Stefan Stenfelt (Sweden) and Dorothe Veraguth (Switzerland). This was best seen at our first in-person conference gathering after Covid-19 pandemy, at the 16th EFAS Congress in Sibenik, in Croatia; six prominent keynote lecturers, seven structured sessions with the best European and visiting world audiologists, two panels with leading experts in their field on audiology in southeast Europe and in communication disorders, four EFAS working groups with a presentation of their work according to current audiological topics, 158 oral lectures in 17 thematic units and 56 poster presentations in four groups. From audiologists from 29 European countries and 17 countries all over the world. Everything new and interesting that can be heard in modern audiology in one place. We are now back to the new normal and now is the time to take our activities one step further. At the EFAS general assembly in Sibenik, we elected a new vice-president of EFAS, Vinay Swarnalatha Nagaraj from Norway, who will be future EFAS president in 2025 – 2027. Vinay is a Professor (Audiology) at the Institute of Neuromedicine and Movement Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences in Trondheim, Norway. As an  active member of the European Federation of Audiology Societies, Vinay will contribute a lot in EFAS Board work, together with Liat, Dorothe, Stefan and me. Our future in-person congress gathering will be at the EFAS 2025 congress in Vienna, Austria, under the chairmanship of Georg Mathias Sprinzl, and at EFAS 2027 in Odense, Denmark, under the chairmanship of Tobias Neher.

My first task will be the consolidation of EFAS. I would like to update the list of the national representatives in EFAS and their members. This will strengthen our organization and enable easier activities of members within European audiology. This will also strengthen EFAS as a member of the Confederation of European ORL-HNS organisation. I will continue our intensive live meetings. We are planning our General Assembly in 2024 in Israel, where we will be hosted by Liat Kishon-Rabin, EFAS Past Chairperson. I am looking forward to a series of audiology meetings and courses in EFAS member countries, which we strongly support as a professional organization. We will revive the EFAS awards; not only EFAS Lifetime Award, but also EFAS Early Career Award, EFAS Congress Scholarships and EFAS Project Grants. And, I wish to leave a written professional literature in audiology during mandate of this EFAS Board. I believe that EFAS members are very competent to write contemporary Audiology, which will be competent literature for all colleagues who deal with audiology. We would like to publish it on our official website (www.efas.ws), which would enable wide access to good audiological professional literature. I wish all of us much success in the joint work of our professional association in the next two years.

With my best regards,

Prof. Robert Trotic, MD, PhD
EFAS Chairperson

May 2023
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