2011

The inaugural Isshiki Award for outstanding contribution to Laryngology was presented to Dr N Isshiki, Emeritus Professor, Kyoto University, Japan at the Gala Dinner and Prize Presentation held at The Great Hall, Bart’s on Tuesday, 21 June 2011.

Nobuhiko Isshiki, Emeritus Professor at Kyoto University, is a pioneer of phonosurgery who developed a series of surgical procedures to improve the voice of patients with vocal fold paralysis, atrophy, after layngeal trauma, pitch problems and recently Spasmodic Dysphonia.

He entered the ENT department at Kyoto University in 1955, to practice both clinical and experimental works and further extended the research works for 2 years at UCLA. After returning home, he made an intensive research into the mechanism of phonation using the excised larynges. Based on the results, he developed  Laryngeal Framework Surgery, which permits the change in the position and tension of the vocal fold without touching it.

His clinical career consists of 1) 22 years of ENT, 2) 16 years of Plastic Surgery, both mostly at the University Clinic, and 3) 18 years of the mixed specialties at the private clinic after retirement. Since his retirement from the University in 1993, he has been the head of the Isshiki Clinic (the Kyoto Voice Surg. Center), and has refined phonosurgical procedures. He has achieved phonosurgery workshops worldwide periodically, at the Free Univ. in Amsterdam, and Mayo Clinic in USA, and sporadically in Santiago (Chile), Mumbai(India), Sao Paulo (Brazil), Ankara (Turkey), Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), and Seoul (South Korea).

Prize winners: 

2021

Dr. Gregory Postma is Professor and Vice-Chairman in the Department Otolaryngology and
Director of the Center for Voice, Airway and Swallowing Disorders at Augusta University,
Atlanta, USA. He graduated in medicine from Hahnemann University in 1984, before completing a residency in Otolaryngology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1993. He then completed his fellowship in laryngology and professional voice at Vanderbilt University in 1996. Professor Postma specializes in voice disorders, professional and singing voice care, dysphagia and associated swallowing disorders, airway surgery and reconstruction, spasmodic dysphonia, and reflux and chronic cough. He is a pioneer of inoffice surgery, including transnasal esophagoscopy and non-sedated laryngeal and airway laser surgery. He has authored or co-authored more than 70 peer-reviewed publications and 50 chapters and invited articles and has given over 100 presentations on a wide range of laryngology topics.

The award was presented virtually by BLA President Guri Sandhu on the 9 July 2021 at the latest meeting of the Laryngology and Rhinology section of the Royal Society of Medicine: ‘Diseases of the larynx and Pharynx’, at which Professor Postma gave the Visiting Professor Lecture. Mr Chadwan Al Yaghchi accepted the award in person on behalf of Professor Postma.

2016

Guri Sandhu is a Consultant Otolaryngologist and Head & Neck Surgeon at Imperial College and The Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospitals in London, with honorary contracts at The Royal Brompton, University College and St Bartholomew’s Hospitals. He is also an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College and University College London and the Honorary Treasurer of the BLA.

Mr Sandhu graduated from the University of London in 1990 having trained in Medicine at The Royal London Hospital. As a registrar, he trained in ENT at The Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital and in Paediatric ENT at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children. He is a laryngologist with a special interest in laryngotracheal stenosis but also manages voice and swallowing disorders. He has experience in performing the full spectrum of endoscopic and open surgical procedures on the larynx, pharynx and airway; many of these procedures he has pioneered himself.

He lectures nationally and internationally on these subjects and has an active research programme. He was responsible for setting up the National Centre for Airway Reconstruction in London which comprises a multidisciplinary team of specialists with an interest in airway problems. This unit has treated the largest number of adult patients with laryngotracheal stenosis in Europe.

2014

The Isshiki Award for outstanding contribution to Laryngology was presented to Professor David Howard, First BLA President (2012-2013), Council Member and Chair of the Allied Health Professionals Sub Committee at the BLA Annual Conference 2014 held at The Royal Society of Medicine, on Thursday, 26 June 2014.

David qualified at St George’s Hospital, London in 1972 and following 6 years initial training in general surgery and orthopaedics, he commenced ENT and head and neck surgery in 1978. He became Senior Lecturer in Laryngology at University College London in 1984 and Honorary Consultant at the Royal National Throat, Nose and Ear Hospital.

He has a career-long interest in laryngology with multiple honorary consultant appointments in London and the UK. His research and teaching have involved many national and international presentations and projects. He was appointed Professor of Head & Neck Oncology at Imperial College and Imperial NHS Trust Hospitals in 2007. David has retired from full-time NHS and University work but continues with busy commitments to High Altitude and Critical Care medical research with the Centre for Altitude,Space and Extreme Environment at University College,London, and teaching /surgery at Korle Bu Hospital, Accra, Ghana.

The Isshiki Award for outstanding contribution to Laryngology was presented to Dr Frederik G. Dikkers, MD, PhD, Associate Professor in Otorhinolaryngology at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), The Netherlands, at the Prize Presentation held at The Royal College of Surgeons of England, on Tuesday, 18 June 2013.

Frederik G. Dikkers, MD, PhD, is an Associate Professor in Otorhinolaryngology at the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG), the Netherlands, and visiting professor at the University of Belgrade, Serbia. Since more than 20 years he is responsible for the UMCG Voice Clinic. His interests include the full array of laryngeal and tracheal problems. Since 1990, he is responsible for two different courses on endoscopy. He is founder of the local working group on tracheal intervention. The Groningen dilatation tracheoscope was developed by his group. Since 2008, Dr. Dikkers is General Secretary of the European Laryngological Society. He is, amongst other memberships, full member of the IAP and ABEA. He is reviewer of 9 journals, author and co-author of more than 60 peer reviewed papers, and has contributed in numerous textbooks on the larynx and on the difficult airway. He is currently supervising two PhD projects on RRP, and has supervised more than 35 master’s theses in medicine. He has given more than 500 presentations in more than 30 countries. He was shortlisted three times, and elected once as Teacher of the Year of his Faculty of Medicine.

2012

The Isshiki Award for outstanding contribution to Laryngology was presented to Dr Abdullah Sani, Clinical Professor of ORL, Head and Neck Surgery, National University of Malaysia, Malaysia at the Gala Dinner held at The Malaysian Petroleum Club, on Friday, 1 June 2012.

Dr Abdullah Sani, MD (UKM), FRCS (Edin) MS ORL-HNS (UKM), is a Clinical Professor of ORL – Head and Neck Surgery. He was trained in phonosurgery at the Voice Centre of the University of Pittsburgh, USA. He now runs voice clinics, sleep apnoea clinics in addition to the regular ORL clinics at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. He introduced various aspects of care of the professional voice to his fellow surgeons and frequently gets referral from all over Malaysia and the ASEAN region for voice and other laryngeal pathologies. He is also well versed in laryngeal laser microsurgery. He trains residents and young surgeons in laryngology and holds annual phonosurgery courses in Kuala Lumpur. He has innovated a laryngeal holder for surgery of cadaveric larynges which is a feature of his hands on phonosurgery courses.