Tag: smell and taste
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Fifth Sense 2015 Conference Preview
The 2015 Fifth Sense conference will be taking place on 31st October and 1st November at the University of Surrey in Guildford.
For an idea of what to expect at our conference, here’s a short video filmed at the successful 2014 event:
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‘Let’s Talk Smell and Taste’
This is our theme for the 2015 conference. We want to encourage those of you who are affected by a smell/taste-related disorder to talk about your condition and how it affects you.
The Sunday workshops will also be a good opportunity to talk about any ways you may have of coping with your condition so that everyone can learn from these shared experiences.
We’re also encouraging you to attend with your partner, or perhaps a friend or family member, so they can gain a better understanding of what it means to have a smell/taste disorder.
We’ll be carrying the ‘Let’s Talk Smell and Taste’ theme on into 2016 as part of our efforts to encourage the wider public to better appreciate these senses and become more aware of the impact that smell and taste disorders can have.
Saturday 31st October: Clinical Information and Research Day
Day one of the conference is for anyone who wishes to find out more about smell and taste disorders, existing treatments and the possibilities that future research may bring.
– The science of smell and taste and how both senses work
– Different types of smell and taste disorders, their causes, and potential treatments.
– Current and future research
– ‘Consultant Q&A’ session where audience members will have the opportunity to have their questions answered by Consultant ENT Surgeons Mr Carl Philpott and Mr San Sunkaraneni.
– Condition-specific group sessions for Fifth Sense members with the opportunity to have your say into how research should be directed in future
– Meet some of our volunteer Regional Coordinators (both Saturday and Sunday)
Sunday 1st November: Support and Advice Day
Day two has been designed specifically for Fifth Sense members with a strong emphasis on mutual support and workshops focused on helping you find better ways of living with your condition
– A choice of workshops focused on different aspects of living with a smell/taste disorder led by Fifth Sense members and experts from the worlds of food, drink and fragrance
– Topics covered include: sharing olfactory experiences past and present, the language of olfactory disorders, coping with the loss of a sense, smell training, ‘Taste, Train and Enjoy’ with FlavorActiV and food and cooking tips
– There will also be open sessions running all day with no set topic or agenda – perfect if you wish to meet new people and chat
– Special lunch menu provided by the team at the University’s Lakeside Restaurant
On the Saturday evening we’ll be organising some sort of social gathering for anyone who wants to join us, details will be confirmed nearer the time.
Loaction
The University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7XH
Tickets
Weekend Tickets – £114.50 (includes tea and coffee on arrival, lunch and booking fee)
Individual Day Tickets – £62.50 (includes tea and coffee on arrival, lunch and booking fee)
Accommodation is not included in the weekend ticket price above, however we will be providing details of local accommodation when tickets go on sale.
Tickets will be on sale soon.
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Published Research from Fifth Sense – The Impact of Olfactory Disorders in the UK
We’re very pleased to be able to announce the publication of the first piece of research that Fifth Sense and our members have directly contributed to.
Chemical Senses journal have published a paper co-authored by Mr Carl Philpott, Senior Lecturer at UEA and Director of the Smell and Taste Clinic at James Paget Hospital, and Fifth Sense Founder Duncan Boak.
The Impact of Olfactory Disorders in the United Kingdom is drawn from the first 496 responses to the ongoing ‘Quality of Life Impact of Smell and Taste Disorders’ survey amongst the Fifth Sense membership.
To view the paper’s abstract and to obtain a copy of the full text, visit the Oxford Journals website here.
We would like to take the opportunity to thank all Fifth Sense members who have completed the survey and played their part in helping us make an important step forward in research into smell and taste-related disorders.
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Apolline Saillard – Olfaction: Not Invisible Anymore
Central Saint Martins student Apolline Saillard recently completed her MA Communications Design project on anosmia, which featured contributions from Fifth Sense members. Here’s Fifth Sense’s Sarah Page to tell us more.
‘Unknown Quantities’ is the title of a joint publication by MA Culture, Criticism and Curation and MA Communication Design students of Central Saint Martins University. The work in the journal is incredibly diverse, due to each student having the ability to pursue their own choice of topic; exploring themes of regeneration, gentrification, interdisciplinary and collaboration, especially across art and science. Among the students contributing to the publication was Apolline Saillard, MA Communication Design student.
Apolline got in touch with me late January this year. She was working on an piece of work about anosmia for UQ and asked if I would like to have my photographic series of portraits based on anosmia published in the first edition of UQ. My instant reaction was “YES, of course”! The photographs were something that I had worked on in September 2013, in hope that they would somehow catch the attention of the many people oblivious to the word ‘anosmia’. UQ was a great opportunity to do just that.
It was clear from reading Apolline’s emails that she had a keen interest in anosmia and I was extremely happy to find someone else exploring this. Finally, we met in person in March at the Fifth Sense charity press launch at the grand Senate House in London (which by the way, it was an absolutely fantastic day. I urge anyone with a smell or taste disorder or an interest in the senses of smell and taste to attend the next Fifth Sense event!).
Fifth Sense Founder Duncan Boak and I both contributed to Apolline’s piece in UQ, and we were invited to the Lethaby Gallery in London for the launch party. I met Apolline there early to attend her workshop on Anosmia. Apolline lead her presentation while referring to statistics from the Fifth Sense ‘Quality of Life Impact of Smell and Taste Disorders’ survey and quotes from people affected by anosmia with accompanying images. A small bunch of onlookers sat and quietly listened to this completely unheard-of discovery unraveling before them. I gave a brief description of my work and then we both sat down to prepare us for the questions heading our way. Afterwards, Apolline passed around two 3D printed modeled noses and asked if they could tell the difference between the two. One was a replica of a person with anosmia, and one with their full sense of smell (obviously, there are no visual telltale signs). Anosmia is sometimes referred to as an invisible disability and this certainly came across well in Apolline’s work.
Later that day we had chance to wander around the degree show with a glass of wine and take a look at the work surrounding us in the room. The exhibition housed some fantastic work, but personally one project in particular stood out for me the most. ‘Multisensory Plateware Design’ by Ferdinand Freiler focused on creating a more intense flavour and dining experience through the use of plateware. On display were two unusual white, small oval bowls. The characteristics (colour, texture, shape and size) were said to be specifically designed to compliment and enhance the eating experience. The first bowl had smooth small ridges on the outside, the second was the opposite, with evenly spaced spiky ridges. I thought how great of an idea this was especially for people who’ve lost their enjoyment in food.
At 8pm the launch party finally took off. The room was buzzing with students, tutors, contributors and members of the public. Following a very warm welcome, everyone involved were given a very public ‘thank you’ for the work they contributed. Some hundred printed copies of UQ were stacked upon each other on tables. Finally, I got my hands on it! It was a cheerful orange and grey book, over 1cm thick with a durable matte texture; something much more substantial than your everyday magazine. 23 pages in was Apolline’s work titled ‘ODOURS; Give Voice to the Silence’. Included was an interview with Patty Canac (olfacto-therapist), an hallucinatory illustration of the olfactory system by Rebecca Hendin, portrait photographs by Apolline and an article about anosmia and Fifth Sense with my images accompanying the write up.
I was extremely proud to see the piece finished. Seeing the whole 15 pages, all based on the olfactory system, gave me a sense of hope and determination for the future: What else can we utilise to spread the word? Who else can we get involved? Where could Fifth Sense be in a few years time?
I’d like to congratulate everyone involved, to the students completing their studies, and a very big thank you to Apolline for helping give people with anosmia a voice.
Apolline Saillard – Olfaction: Not Invisible Anymore:
http://2014.csmcommunicationdesign.com/students/apolline-marie-saillard/
Patty Canac:
http://www.olfarom.com
Rebecca Hendin – Illustration of the olfactory system:
http://www.rebeccahendin.com/#!l’art/albumphotos5=13
Sarah Kathleen Page – Anosmia photographic work:
http://www.sarahkathleenpage.co.uk/anosmia
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Fifth Sense at the British Rhinological Society Conference 2014
Fifth Sense participated in the 2014 British Rhinological Society (BRS) conference held on 16th May at the Assembly House, Norwich. The BRS is a sub-group of ENTUK, with membership consisting mainly of Consultants and Registrars who work in the field of rhinology – the nose and sinuses.
Our presence at the conference gave us an excellent opportunity to engage directly with the ENT profession and raise awareness of the impact of olfactory disorders, and the existence of Fifth Sense.
We felt that the conference was very successful from that perspective. There were a number of talks in the morning, one of which was from Tim Bradshaw. Tim has been working with Mr Carl Philpott on the Personal Accounts of Anosmia (PAAS) study, to which many Fifth Sense members have contributed their own accounts of the difficulties they face in living with the condition. Tim gave an excellent summary of the findings, along with anonymised quotes from the accounts.
This was backed up by an excellent talk from guest speaker Professor Thomas Hummell from the Smell and Taste Clinic at the University of Dresden. Prof Hummell’s talk covered causes, treatment, and the impact of olfactory disorders on patients, and was very well-received by delegates.
Following Prof Hummell’s talk, lunch was served, with guests being issued with a nose clip by Fifth Sense’s Duncan Boak. Dessert consisted of three different flavoured fruit mousses, labelled only with the letters A, B and C. Duncan introduced himself and Fifth Sense to the delegates, and explained how they were to try each mousse with the noseclip on, and guess the different flavours both with and without the nose clips. It was brilliant to see so many of the delegates really engaging with this, and gave Duncan the opportunity to go around, speak to individuals and tell them more about Fifth Sense and the negative experiences of so many of our members, both in terms of quality of life and also from unknowledgable and/or unsupportive doctors.
We also had the opportunity to catch up with nearly all of the Consultants we are working with who treat smell and taste disorders – Sean Carrie, Claire Hopkins, Lisha McClelland and Carl Philpott, who hosted the conference. We’d like to remind all our members of the smell and taste clinics page on our website – www.fifthsense.org.uk/clinics – if you’d like an appointment with any of the clinics featured on the site, then ask your GP for a referral. We also met Amin Javer, who runs a sinus clinic in Vancouver in Canada, with whom we are soon to start work with in providing support for Canadian smell and taste disorder sufferers.
All in all, an excellent day, with lots of new contacts made and plenty of awareness-raising done in a sector of the medical profession that is really important to Fifth Sense and smell and taste disorder sufferers. Hopefully we’ll be back next year!
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Fifth Sense at Imagining the Future of Medicine
Fifth Sense had the privilege of participating in the Imagining the Future of Medicine event, organised by Imperial College London in partnership with TEDMed on April 21st. We were able to speak to delegates who attended The Cell in the Sir Alexander Fleming building on the South Kensington campus, where innovators in health care were on hand to discuss their work and objectives. Fifth Sense Founder Duncan Boak, Mr Carl Philpott of the University of East Anglia and the JPUH Smell and Taste Clinic, Maggie Rosen and Chrissi Kelly were on hand to meet the public and ask “What does your sense of smell mean to you”?
As well as discussing taste and smell disorders with visitors to the stand, we were using an innovative device called the Scentee to test people’s sense of smell. This involved them smelling different scents emitted by the device and then completing a short questionnaire. This was our first trial run of the National Smell and Taste Survey that we are planning on running in 2015. This was a huge success and we had a small crowd of visitors around our stand for the duration of the event.
Duncan also delivered a talk in the lecture theatre to around 150 visitors in which he talked about the importance of the sense of smell to our lives, drawing on first-hand accounts of Fifth Sense members from our ongoing quality of life survey to demonstrate the huge impact that smell and taste disorders can have upon people’s lives.
As always, it is of great interest to speak to the public and hear their stories first-hand. Perhaps the most striking feature of our time at Monday’s event was the number of people who came forward to say that they, or someone they knew, suffered from some form of olfactory disorder. This supports what we already know to be the case: whilst smell and taste disorders remain largely hidden, the effects of them have far-reaching consequences.
The later part of the afternoon was spent in the Royal Albert Hall, where Dara O’Brian hosted the Imagining the Future of Medicine lecture series – three sessions with four inspirational speakers in each – on innovation, creativity and expertise in healthcare. Fascinating insights and plenty to draw on for Fifth Sense. During the networking event before and during dinner, we were able to meet a number of the speakers, and again, we were told people’s personal stories of anosmia. The recurring themes of the day for Fifth Sense were that those who are unacquainted with anosmia are surprised to hear of the profound effects on sufferers, and for those who already knew of the condition first hand, they are bewildered and isolated–an indication of the timeliness of the Fifth Sense message.