The BMJ Awards: Medical Team of the Year

The BMJ Awards were held last Thursday. Fiona Godlee, the BMJ's editor in chief, announced that the Britain Nepal Otology Service (BRINOS) was named Medical Team of the Year. BRINOS (brinos.org.uk) started out in 1988 by setting up joint British and Nepalese surgical camps to treat ear disease among patients living outside the reach of hospitals in the capital of Kathmandu. A national survey in 1991 found that among the 19m people in Nepal, 2.7m were deaf and 1.5m had abnormal ear drums indicative of ear disease. BRINOS has performed more than 4000 major ear operations at 49 surgical day camps since its first expedition in 1989. Furthermore, there have been many anecdotal stories of improved education and employment opportunities in social isolation after surgery. The organisation expanded in 2000 to introduce community ear assistants, who are specially trained in the diagnosis and treatment of ear disease and dispense hearing aids passed on from the NHS.