ESIT — Landmark Partnership Between the Patient and Research Community
Hi all,
As associated partners of ESIT (European School on Interdisciplinary Tinnitus Research), we recently had the opportunity to take part in its kick-off meeting in the beautiful Herrsching am Ammersee, near Munich. Steve took a flight out and met with a large selection of the participants.
Each member of the group introduced themselves in a brief 3 minute spot and gave a little information on their role within the project. This was an excellent opportunity for the group to get to know one another. We also got a rundown of the 15 PhD’s, the recruitment processes and had time to talk to one another, and of course have some fine German beer by the lake.
The academic, professional and partner organisations selected are from a broad cross section, so the discussions and future collaborations were exciting. It was a big achievement for the organisers to get so many people to attend this first meet, much kudos is due.
We discussed the aim to understand the individual differences in tinnitus. It is acknowledged that a uniformly effective treatment for all types of tinnitus is unlikely.
At the moment there is low comparability between research so it’s difficult to know how effective different treatments are when compared to each other. As part of the TINNET project and continuing the theme to ESIT this is being addressed. The results of the COMIT’ID study will play a part in future research and the development of a new standard.
What is ESIT?
- 15 PhD students working on cutting edge tinnitus research
- Collaboration from universities, partner organisations and companies across the EU
- Tinnitus Hub (Tinnitus Talk) is one of the groups representing the patient
- More information on ESIT’s website
What is our part in ESIT?
We are part of ESIT as a partner organisation, principally to help disseminate the information and bring the research conducted and the end users (those of us with tinnitus) closer together.
As the largest online forum for tinnitus, we have 20,000+ members and over 2 million yearly visitors. While it’s good to see something you feel passionate about growing it’s also hard to see so many people in the world searching for help. With our role in ESIT we are able to showcase emerging research and the flow of new minds into the field of tinnitus.
We hope that this project, along with the greater understanding we can bring between researchers and those with tinnitus, will give more hope to those that are desperate to see tinnitus taken more seriously.
