Research

HUS Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (ORL - HNS) conducts an active research in both clinical and translational sciences. Our research programme covers a broad range of projects in the areas of otology and audiology, rhinology including allergies, head and neck surgery and oncology, laryngology and phoniatrics, and pediatric ENT.
 

We perform both epidemiological and clinical outcome studies on various disease entities related to Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery. Various aspects of novel therapies, complications after treatment, Quality of Life, and effects of nutrition are addressed. Many of these projects are multidisciplinary and also involve other medical specialties. Close collaboration with other university hospitals in Finland and in the Nordic countries is frequently applied. 
 

In Head and Neck cancer studies clinical data typically form the basis for translational research investigating diagnostic, prognostic or predictive markers. We are also focusing on the use of various molecular techniques to identify genes that are altered or deregulated and could thus be molecular genetic markers. We have used next-generation sequencing and microarray-based methods to systematically screen for gene expression levels, gene copy number alterations and genetic variations in Head and Neck Cancer. Another research path will use modern discovery-driven technologies (modern mass spectrometry) to identify novel diagnostic biomarkers for the detection of these cancers at early stage.
 

The Hearing Centre at the Helsinki University Hospital is involved in research on developing hearing diagnostics in Finland in collaboration with other Finnish university hospitals. There are a number of ongoing validation studies of the newly-developed Finnish speech-in-noise test in different patient populations including a matrix sentence test and simplified sentence test for diagnostic applications, and a digit triplet test for hearing screening purposes. The Hearing Centre is also looking into the benefits of bilateral hearing rehabilitation with cochlear implants, and into assessing the benefits of binaural hearing in complex listening environments comprising background noise and reverberation. Furthermore, the clinical benefit of directional microphone technology in alleviating the effects of noise on speech reception in these environments is evaluated.
 

The research in Phoniatrics involves for example acoustic correlates of voice, physiology of singing voice, studies on irritable/hypersensitive larynx, effects of indoor air quality on the voice of teachers, effects of the stuttering DAF/FAF devices on fluency of speech and the Helsinki longitudinal specific language impairment study.
 

Through all these research efforts we aim at developing the screening, diagnostics, treatment and prevention of the diseases in our specialty.