Welcome to ENT and Ontalarynology

Overview of the Trinity Otolaryngology Department

This is an overview of the Trinity Otolaryngology Department, which I coordinate from the Royal Victoria Eye & Ear Hospital and from its satellite campuses at St. James’s Hospital and Tallaght Hospital. At the beginning of each academic year, my colleague Mr. John Kinsella and I offer introductory lectures on all aspects of Otolaryngology, e.g. Salivary Gland Pathology, Thyroid & Parathyroid Pathology and Head & Neck Cancer. My learned colleagues, Mr. Mark Rafferty and Mr. Brendan Conlon, also assist me in this matter by lecturing on Voice & Sinus Pathology and Ear Pathology respectively. Medical students are required to be present at each lecture, as well as to attend the ENT rotation, i.e. either in their third/final year. During the ENT rotation, which normally takes place on a weekly/biweekly basis, students spend time in the theatre and in the out-patients’ departments under my supervision and that of the ENT team. In this way, they receive instruction in head and neck surgery and become familiar with the ongoing management of various ailments such as sinusitis, epitaxis and head & neck tumours that are covered in the Otolaryngology aspect of medicine. The students also attend tutorials on Speech Therapy and Audiology. The lectures and tutorials coupled with the rotation seek to prepare the students for their final examination which takes place at the close of the academic year. Students who wish to pursue a career in the field of Otolaryngology are encouraged to liaise with myself and my team during or in the aftermath of their rotation, so that they may secure a place for their medical elective in the Royal Victoria Eye & Ear Hospital. As a medical elective, students not only receive significant medical knowledge imparted on one-to-one basis, but also find that they internalise a sense of the day-to-day workings of a hospital environment, both of which prove invaluable in their careers in the future.  

On behalf of myself and my teams in the Royal Victoria Eye & Ear Hospital and St. James’s Hospital, I would like to take this opportunity to welcome all medical students to the Trinity Department of Otolaryngology. I sincerely hope that your presence during the lectures and your subsequent time on the rotation, support your quest for knowledge in the field of medicine. 
Conrad Timon, MB, BAO BCH, MD, FRCSI, FRCS (ORL) 
Clinical Professor of Otolaryngology