9th World Congress on Cochlear Implants in Emerging Nations

Congress Committee's Message

Dear Esteemed Colleagues and Guests,

It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the 9th World Congress on Cochlear Implants in Emerging Nations, taking place from 10 to 12 December 2026 here in vibrant Hong Kong. This congress gathers leading experts, researchers, and practitioners from around the globe to share insights and advancements in cochlear implant technology, addressing the pressing challenges of hearing health in developing regions.

As we come together, we honour the paths of our predecessors from North to South, East to West, whose pioneering work laid the foundation for many of the advancements we celebrate today. Their dedication has inspired us to pursue our mission of advancing universal neonatal hearing screening globally, building infrastructure and expertise, and training more audiologists in countries that need them.

Our vision at the Global Cochlear Implant Access Network (GCIAN) is to improve awareness and access to hearing health solutions in emerging nations, which represent over 60% of the world's population. Together, we face the looming global hearing loss pandemic, and our mission is critical: to foster closer collaborations with manufacturers, advocate for affordable cochlear implants and hearing aids, and develop fellowships for promising ear surgeons.

Over the next three days, we have an exciting program lined up, featuring:

  • Plenary Sessions featuring renowned speakers addressing key topics
  • Symposia delving into specific areas of interest
  • Roundtable Discussions for fostering dialogue
  • Free Paper Presentations showcasing innovative research


9th World Congress on Cochlear Implants in Emerging Nations
Congress President: Professor TONG Chi Fai Michael
Secretariat General: Dr. CHANG Wai Tsz
Committee Members: Dr. CHENG Horace, Ms. HEUNG Wai Yee May, Professor LAW Ka Tung Thomas, Professor LEE Yuet Sheung Kathy, Dr. LUI Choi Mui Kary, Dr. NG Hoi Yee Iris, Dr. TAM Ka Yue Aurora, Dr. THONG Jiun Fong.

Organizer
Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head & Neck Surgery
Faculty of Medicine
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Webpage
www.ent.cuhk.edu.hk
 
Email Address
events.ent@cuhk.edu.hk

Telephone Number
(852) 3505 1277

Secretariat Office
Room 84026, 6/F, Lui Che Woo Clinical Sciences Building, Prince of Wales Hospital, Shatin, Hong Kong

Organizing Committee

Professor TONG Chi Fai
Professor TONG Chi Fai MichaelOtology & Neurotology

President
Professor Tong, a clinical professor of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, as well as the Director of the Institute of Human Communicative Research at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is specialized in the fields of otology, neurotology, and skull base surgery. He was the chief of the Division of Otorhinolaryngology of the Department of Surgery from 2003 to 2007, the Head of Academic Divisions of the Department from 2007 to 2015, and the Chairman of the Department from 2015 to 2024.

Recently, Professor Tong has been pioneering the development of advanced endoscopic ear surgery techniques, medical robotics, and the application of artificial intelligence in medicine and technological tools for neurosciences. Paralleled with that, his interest has extended to the broader field of medicine, including epidemiology and public health, especially in elderly health. He is also a key member of the Brain and Mind Institute, the Gerald Choa Neuroscience Institute, the INNOHK Multiscale Medical Robotics Centre, and the CUHK T-Stone Robotics Institute.

Having led the relevant clinical research teams, Professor Tong has numerous successful grants and over 280 peer-reviewed publications, which have resulted in a national and international reputation for his department in the field of general otology, cochlear and auditory brainstem implantation, and nasopharyngeal cancer research. He has also been interested in developing technical innovations for minimally invasive surgery in otorhinolaryngology and head and neck surgery.

Professor Tong has been visiting globally as an educator for the past 30 years, sharing his clinical and surgical experience in hearing implants, endoscopic ear surgery, and related fields of the specialty. He has been a key leader in chairing international conferences and committees, and he co-founded the World Chinese Academy of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, the sole notable organization to represent greater China for IFOS, the international ENT community.

Apart from teaching, research, and clinical work, Professor Tong advocates for community service to educate the public on health issues related to the ear, nose, and throat. As the Founder and Chairman of a non-profit organization, Hear Talk Foundation, since 2003, he has enlisted voluntary service from professionals to offer service to the underprivileged. The Foundation has operated regular charitable missions to mainland China to provide free medical and surgical treatment to the poor and surgical training to local specialists. Professor Tong has also established an organization, the Asia Pacific Otorhinolaryngologic Surgical Training Group (APOST) since 2016, to train otorhinolaryngology-head and neck surgeons in the Asia-Pacific region to foster specialty development in Asia through collaboration between academic and industrial partners.
Dr. CHANG Wai Tsz
Dr. CHANG Wai TszOtology & Neurotology

Secretariat General

Dr. Chang is the Chief of the Otology and Neurotology Division in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, with special interest in hearing degeneration, auditory implantation, vestibular diseases, tinnitus, transcanal endoscopic ear surgery and skull base surgery. She pioneered endoscopic ear surgery in Hong Kong since 2016 and performed the first transcanal skull base surgery in the same year.

She performed most of the auditory implants and is the leader of many of the otology research in her centre. She is currently the Assistant Director of Institute of Human Communicative Research, Trainer of The Hong Kong College of Otorhinolaryngologists, the Asia Pacific Otorhinolaryngologic Surgical Training Group (APOST) and the World Skull Base Group. She is a member of the International Working Group on Endoscopic Ear Surgery (IWGEES), Secretary of the Pan-Asia Working Group on Endoscopic Ear Surgery (PAWGEES). She has collaborations with John Hopkin’s Centre for research related to elderly hearing loss and dementia. She is the Chief Author of the Total Endoscopic Ear Surgery Dissection Manual published by the CUHK with a total of more than 30 publications including international journals, peers reviewed abstracts and book chapters.

Dr. CHENG Horace
Dr. CHENG Horace Otology & Neurotology

Committee Member

Dr. Horace CHENG graduated from the medical faculty of The Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2011. He then completed the fellowship training in Otorhinolaryngology in 2019. He is currently a Consultant in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at Prince of Wales Hospital and Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital. He has interest in Otology and Neurotology, including cochlear implantation, minimally invasive middle ear surgeries for cholesteatoma and ossicular chain diseases. He is also passionate in training and education in otorhinolaryngology specialty.

Miss HEUNG Wai Yee May
Ms. HEUNG Wai Yee MayAudiology

Committee Member

Ms. Heung obtained her audiology degree from The University of Queensland, Australia. She is an Audiology Australia Accredited Audiologist and is registered as a member of the Register of Audiologists accredited by the Department of Health in Hong Kong. She has experience working in both private and non-governmental sectors, and currently serves private patients at the Prince of Wales Hospital while also practising in the private sector. Her professional interests include hearing rehabilitation, cochlear implantation, and tinnitus. In her clinical practice, she is dedicated to providing comprehensive patient care, with a focus on optimising functional outcomes and enhancing quality of life through tailored professional services.

Professor LAW Ka Tung Thomas
Professor LAW Ka Tung ThomasSpeech Therapy

Committee Member

Professor Law is a speech-language pathologist registered in Hong Kong and Australia. He specialises in voice disorders, fluency disorders, and multilingual acquisition and its disorders. He is currently the Chief of Division of Speech Therapy. Thomas’ research includes intervention outcomes and epidemiology in both stuttering and voice disorders, linguistic factors affecting stuttering, issues regarding perceptual evaluation of voice and clinical education in speech-language pathology.

Professor LEE Yuet
Professor LEE Yuet Sheung KathySpeech Therapy

Committee Member

Professor Lee is an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

She is also the Director of the Laboratory for Linguistics, Communication Disorders and Biomedical Sciences at the Shenzhen Research Institute.

In addition to supervising master's and doctoral students, Professor Lee launched the Master's program in Speech-Language Pathology in 2018. This program has become one of the most popular courses in the medicine faculty, receiving over 300 applications in each batch.

Professor Lee is an experienced Speech-Language Pathologist who has spearheaded the development of validated tests, including: The Cantonese Receptive Vocabulary Test (CRVT), The Cantonese Basic Speech Perception Test (CBSPT), The Cantonese Tone Identification Test (CANTIT), The Cantonese Spoken Word Recognition Test (CanSWORT) and the Hong Kong Cantonese Language Assessment Scale for Preschool Children (HKCLASS-P).
The assessment tools have been widely adopted in the academic and professional fields.

In 2018, Professor Lee published the "Speech Therapy Assessment Handbook (with Assessment Form)" tailored for Mandarin-speaking communities. Subsequently, in 2024, she served as the chief editor and published the book entitled "Children's Language Disorder Training Handbook", focusing on paediatric language intervention in the Chinese-speaking communities.

Professor Lee has been engaged in research related to speech therapy for many years, has presented multiple papers in international journals and conferences, covering various clinical domains of speech therapy.

Dr. LUI Choi Mui Kary
Dr. LUI Choi Mui KaryOtology & Neurotology

Committee Member

Dr. Kary Lui completed her fellowship in Otorrhinolaryngology in Hong Kong. She is now serving in the public sector as an otologist, with special interest in endoscopic middle ear surgery, stapes surgery, cochlear implantation and lateral skull base surgery.

Dr. NG Hoi Yee Iris
Dr. NG Hoi Yee IrisAudiology

Committee Member

Dr. Ng was trained as a clinical audiologist, and registered as a member of the Register of Audiologists accredited by the Department of Health. She serves the community with identification and rehabilitation of hearing and communication difficulties. She, and the Division of Audiology led by her, is currently engaged in a few funded research and community projects on management of hearing loss among elderly population, as well as the effect and outcome evaluation of various hearing prostheses. She has also worked for over 10 years on the application of psychometrics, in the development and validation of standardised assessment tools in speech and hearing sciences.

Dr. TAM Ka Yue Aurora
Dr. TAM Ka Yue AuroraOtology & Neurotology

Committee Member

Dr. Aurora Tam is a Resident Specialist at Prince of Wales Hospital and Clinical Honorary Lecturer at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She obtained her MBBS from The University of Hong Kong (2018) and is a fellow of The Hong Kong College of Otorhinolaryngologists (2025). Dr. Tam specializes in laryngology and otology, with particular interest in office-based laser laryngology and recurrent respiratory papillomatosis. She has published research on awake transnasal laser-assisted surgery and novel laser applications in cholesteatoma management, and has been recognized with multiple awards for her academic contributions and presentations at international conferences.

Dr. THONG Jiun Fong
Dr. THONG Jiun FongOtology & Neurotology

Committee Member

Dr Thong was an ENT Senior Consultant and Director of the Hearing and Ear Implant centre at the Singapore General Hospital till 31st May 2022. She studied in the United Kingdom and obtained her medical degree from the University of Edinburgh in 2001. She worked in UK for 5 years before relocating to Singapore where she then underwent specialist training in ENT. She was awarded the Human Manpower Development Plan (HMDP) award in 2014 to further her interest and subspecialty training in Otology and Neurotology in Hong Kong. Her main interests are in hearing implant and rehabilitation, minimally-invasive ear surgery and management of medical otological conditions in the Asian population. She is currently based in Hong Kong.

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