Thank you all for being here today to talk about Thailand’s progress in hearing health, and opportunities for Australia and Thailand to exchange knowledge, capabilities, and accelerate improvements in patient care.
Before we begin, I want to take you back fifty years to Minnamurra Beach in my home state of New South Wales.
Where an Australian professor called Graeme Clark was taking a walk.
He was a specialist in otolaryngology.
And fifty years ago, he struggled with a singular issue - how to create an electrode bundle that could pass through the ever tightening spiral of the cochlea without causing damage and allow different speech frequencies to be stimulated on a place coding basis.
So he took a walk on the beach during his Christmas holidays.
And he saw a turban shell that looked just like the cochlea.
A shell into which Professor Clark could easily insert a flexible blade of grass.
And in an instant, Professor Clarke saw the solution to his problem through a tapered, flexible electrode array, that could safely curve around the cochlea.
From a blade of grass, and a turban shell, and a walk on a beach during the Christmas break in New South Wales…
Came the invention, and successful implantation, of the first multi channel cochlear implant, which today now allows more than 1 million people around the world to hear, including over 1,000 here in Thailand.
I acknowledge, too, Thailand’s significant progress in identifying hearing loss early through newborn screening initiatives with coverage of more than 90 per cent.
And of course, too, the important contribution of all the audiologists, ENT specialists, speech therapists, nurses and community health workers.
It’s my hope that today we can discuss what more we can do together to deliver hearing solutions, and to make a difference in people’s lives.
Because hearing is fundamental to communication, learning, social participation, and overall wellbeing.
But I think Professor Clarke put it best: “When I think about the implant and what it does,” he says, “they have enabled adults to communicate with each other, taking them out of their loneliness and their isolation, and depression. And it’s had a dramatic effect on children. They are able to communicate with their peers. They can develop their true potential.”
So, let’s work together so we can ensure that every child and adult has the opportunity to communicate, to be connected, and to reach their full potential.
Thank you.