Fifth Sense at the British Rhinological Society meeting – 20th May 2016

On 20th May we at the Royal Armouries in Leeds at the annual meeting of the Rhinological Society.  The BRS is a sub-group of ENT UK, with membership consisting mainly of Consultants and Registrars who work in the field of rhinology – the nose and sinuses.  The majority of members, therefore, are used to seeing patients with olfactory disorders in their clinics.

This was the third consecutive annual meeting that we have attended, and this year we wanted to promote the ‘Taste, Train, Enjoy‘ project we are undertaking with our partners FlavorActiV around helping people with an impaired sense of smell better understand and utilise their sense of taste.

We took along FlavorActiVs flavour standards for four of the basic tastes – sweet, sour, salty and bitter – and asked the Consultants we met to try blind tasting them to establish which was which.   There was a broad range of abilities at the event, with some people getting all four right without too much difficulty and others scoring a flat zero.

What we did generate was a great deal of positive interest in our efforts to help and support people affected by smell and taste problems, and quite a number of the clinicians we spoke to saw great potential benefits to the Taste, Train, Enjoy project and are interested in being kept informed as to progress.

All in all, another successful visit to the annual BRS meeting.  Thanks to ENT UK for their continued support and to Mr Paul Nix who hosted this year’s event.