Ihab Nada

Director & founder | Egypt

MSKMC cochlear implant unit

Dubai Health Authority (DHA) eligibility letter medical license (2024) Medical Doctorate in Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery (2008) Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt Thesis title: Bone changes in chronic sinusitis & It’s effect on treatment modalities. Masters degree in Otorhinolaryngology (1999 - Very good) Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt Thesis Title: Management of the orbit in paranasal sinus tumors. MB BCH (1994 - Very good) Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt Thanaweya Amma (June 1987) English School Egypt Prep & high school Queen ellenors school , Guildford , U.K.

Abdulmonem AL Shaikh

ENT Consultant-senior Otologist and Cochlear Implant surgeon, Head of ENT Department | Saudi Arabia

SGHJ

Dr. Abdulmonem H. Al Shaikh has served as the former president of the Saudi ORL Society, demonstrating his leadership and expertise in the field. Additionally, he has held positions of significant responsibility, including former Chairman of the Saudi ORL Board program and former Chairman of the ENT Department and Cochlear implant program at KFHJ.

Kurt Schlemmer

Staff Physician | United Arab Emirates

Cleveland Clinic, Abu Dhabi UAE

Dr Schlemmer is a South African ENT surgeon with a particular interest in otology, neurotology and lateral skull base surgery. He is a former director of the Durban Cochlear Implant Program and holds academic positions in the Department of ENT at the University of Kwazulu Natal as well as the department of Audiology, Speech and Language Pathology at the University of Pretoria. He has delivered more than 40 academic presentations and is published in international, peer reviewed journals. He is a recognised reviewer for the International Journal of Pediatric. Otorhinolaryngology and is on the international editorial board of Cochlear Implants International. Dr Schlemmer is currently working as a consultant ENT surgeon at the Cleveland Clinic in Abu Dhabi

Jamal Kassouma

Director of Cochlear Implant Unit, | United Arab Emirates

Dubai Health

Dr. Jamal Kassouma, serves as a distinguished Consultant ENT surgeon and stands as the Director of the Cochlear Implant Unit at Dubai H, UAE. He holds the position of Head of Department at Al Zahra Private Hospital and carries the esteemed roles of Associate Professor at both Damascus University in Syria and Dubai Medical College. A trailblazer, he introduced cochlear implant surgery in Syria back in 2002 and has since conducted approximately 1865 cochlear implantations in Syria and the UAE combined. Dr. Kassouma is recognized as a pioneering traveling cochlear implant surgeon across various countries. His accolades include being named the Middle East Doctor of the Year in 2009 and 2022 for his profound impact on the Deaf Community, as well as receiving the Ibn El Balad Award from Syria in 2005 and the Distinguished Employee award from Dubai Health Authority in 2017, presented by Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid AL Maktoum.

Ayatallah Sheikhany

Assistant Professor of Phoniatrics, ENT department, Faculty of Medicine | Egypt

Cairo University**

Dr. Ayatallah Raouf Sheikhany is an Assistant Professor of Phoniatrics at Cairo university as well as the University of Armed Forces Faculty of Medicine. She serves as a Consultant at the Phoniatrics unit in Agouza Police Hospital, Cairo. Dr. Sheikhany also supervises the rehabilitation section of the cochlear implant program at the same hospital. She supervises basma program for rehabilitation of children who are hard of hearing and cochlear implanted children. In addition, she works as a Visiting Consultant at several hospitals including El Safa, Dar El Fouad, El Sherouk, and Cleopatra Group Hospitals. Dr. Sheikhany's expertise extends from neonates to elderly. She is also a member of the presidential committee of hearing screening and cochlear implant. With her extensive experience and knowledge, Dr. Sheikhany played a crucial role in establishing the national database of the Egyptian CI children and neonatal hearing screening. She has great passion for this field and shares her experience through many national and international conferences and scientific meetings

Sarah Darwish

AuD. Doctor of Audiology | United Arab Emirates

Genesis Healthcare Center, Dubai Science Park.

With 19 years of experience in audiology, Sarah has embraced various roles, including adult rehabilitation audiologist, vestibular audiologist, and pediatric audiologist, culminating in a comprehensive grasp of the field’s specialties. Sarah’s special interests lie in delivering evidence-based practices and solutions to address each patient’s individualized needs from diagnosis through to management, for patients of all ages. She has a special interest in behavioral pediatric hearing assessment, auditory processing diagnostics and remediation.

Ahmad Alamadi

Event Chairman | United Arab Emirates

Dubai Otology

President of Emirates ENT society Associate Professor and visiting Consultant Otologist and cochlear implant surgeon Sharjah University Hospital, Kuwait Hospital Dubai, Sheikh Khalifa Hospital Abu dhabi CEO of Advance Hearing & Balance Center, Dubai

Noweed Ahmad

Consultant Neurotologist, Auditory Implant & Skullbase Surgeon. Cochlear Implant Director | United Arab Emirates

STMC & Tawam University Hospitals, Al Ain, UAE.

Dr Ahmad is Cochlear Implant Programme Director and Consultant Surgeon in otology, neurotology and skullbase surgery in STMC/Tawam Hospitals, Al Ain and James Cook University Hospital, UK. With over 2 decades of UK training and working experience, including fellowships in the USA, Canada and Australia, he has a rare dual qualification (Masters with Distinction) in Audiology from UCL. He is Council Member of the British Skull Base Society, regularly lecturing internationally on skull base, CI and otology, as well as writing chapters for textbooks. He has performed hundreds of auditory implants. In 2022 he broke the world record for a CI procedure in a 103-year old and the first-ever subtotal petrousectomy under LA. He is Founding-Director of the world’s largest charity CI programme and Chairman of the GCC Expert Panel on Adult Cochlear Implantation. He is one of the top medicolegal ENT experts recognised by the Courts in the UK.

Ibrahim Shami

Consultant, Otology/ Neurotology and Lateral skull base microsurgery | Saudi Arabia

Leader of cochlear implant program, King Fahad Medical City

Dr. Mohammed Shami is a Consultant in Otology, Neurotology and Lateral Skull Base Microsurgery at King Fahad Medical City, Saudi Arabia, where he also leads the Cochlear Implant Program. He holds the Saudi and KSU Boards in Otolaryngology and completed fellowships in Otology & Neurotology and Lateral Skull Base Microsurgery in Saudi Arabia and Italy. With extensive experience in managing complex ear and lateral skull base disorders, he is a respected specialist in his field.

Georg Sprinzl

Head of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery | Austria

Universityhospital St. Poelten

Dr.med. Georg M. Sprinzl is Professor of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery and leads the implant team of Department in St. Poelten. He is the head of the Department of Otolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery in St. Poelten, Lower Austria. He focuses on stapes surgery, surgery of active middle ear implants and cochlear implantation as well as on neurootologic and oncologic skull base surgery. Moreover Prof. Sprinzl is licensed to practise medicine in the United Arab Emirates since 2013 and in the People’s Republic of China. Since 2016 he is guest professor at the Semmelweis University in Budapest and Szeged, Hungary. He developed in St. Poelten an ongoing educational program for surgeons with interest in Cochlea implantation and Vibrant Sound Bridge Surgery. Sprinzl is PI of several clinical trials in the field hearing implants. He pays special interest to sound localization and speech perception in bilateral users of Vibrant Sound Bridge. Additionally, he has established a novel animal cochlea implant model in sheep. His main research interests are on the development of new atraumatic cochlea implant electrodes for the restoration of residual hearing and the development of new bone anchored hearing aids. In the last years he focuses on clinical applied translational research in otology and hearing implant surgery. Prof. Sprinzl has published over 135 articles in peer-reviewed journals. He regularly publishes articles in various areas of otolaryngology and head and neck oncology. Due to the development of the educational program in Otology in St. Poelten, where surgical training programs are conducted every 6 months, he is also heavily involved in clinical teaching in many developing countries. He was host of the 14th ENT Danube Symposium, an international meeting which was held in June 2018 in Krems, Lower Austria, with more than 300 participants from 27 countries. Also he organised the Austian ORL Meeting 2024 with more than 950 participants, the 17th European Federation of Audiology Societies in May 2025 with over 350 participants and the 9th International Conference of osseointegrated Implants in September 2025 with more than 700 participants.