 |
 |
 |
 |
BAAP - A Brief History
The Association was founded at a meeting held at the Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital in 21st April 1977. Professor Ian Taylor (Manchester) as the first Chairman and Dafydd Stephens (London) as the first Honorary Secretary. The meeting was attended by ten individuals working in the field of Audiological Medicine who elected. The others present were Ronald Hinchcliffe (Vice Chairman), Harry Beagley, Ross Coles, Bethan Davies, Margaret Dix, Larry Fisch, Dorothy Klein and Tony Martin.
The aim of the Association was to provide a forum for the new Specialty of Audiological Medicine, which had been officially recognised in November 1995. It brought together those working de facto as Audiological Physicians together with those appointed to the new Specialty (at that time only Dorothy Klein and Dafydd Stephens), and was based broadly on format adopted by the Danish Association of Audiological Physicians.
The Association was open to all Consultants practising predominantly in Audiological Medicine and included in its membership in the first years some Otolaryngologists who also practised Audiological Medicine. These included Pat Jobson, Terry Buffin, Bob McCrea and Navnit Shah. Honorary life membership was instituted in 1978 and awarded to Charles Skinner Hallpike, Larry Fisch (who had then retired) and Andrew Walker.
Much of the time at the early meetings was concerned with relationships with other bodies and defining training programmes, which were first established at the RNTNE Hospital and the National Hospital for Nervous Diseases in London together with the University of Manchester over the period 1979 - 81.
In 1980, the Association supported the establishment of the International Association of Physicians in Audiology in which our members have continued to play an important role. That year a successful Scientific meeting of BAAP was held in London, following which the Hallpike Symposia were instituted. It was decided to run the Hallpike Symposia separately from the Association in order to attract a wider audience.
Associate membership of the Association was introduced in 1982 to encourage trainees in the Specialty to participate in meetings.
In 1983, the first approach to obtaining EU recognition of our Specialty was made jointly with European Colleagues. This is a matter which continues to be addressed by the Association.
The first publication of the Association was the policy document "Paediatric Audiological medicine - into the 1990s" produced by Susan Bellman and Susan Snashall in 1990, followed four years later by "Adult Audiological Medicine - in the 1990s" by Dafydd Stephens, Susan Snashall, Linda Luxon and Rosalyn Davies, in 1994.
Membership continued to expand with the slow growth of Consultant posts in the Specialty and the expansion of training posts. In 1996, Consultants in Community Paediatrics practising predominantly in Audiology were welcomed to the Association so that, at the time of writing, membership has expanded from the original 10 to over 80, excluding the Honorary Life Members.
 |