UNAIR NEWS – Conducting a research is not easy. Many sacrifices are needed to do it. Kania Alawiyah and Dyah Ratih Utami, students of Faculty of Medicine Universitas Airlangga class of 2016 know well about it. Both of them had the opportunity to present their research findings and participate in 31 st World Congress of IALP (International Association of Logopedics and Phoniatrics) 2019 in Taipei Taiwan.
For 4 days, Kania and Ratih were with academics and practitioners in the fields of audiology, speech, and communication disorder to present their research. “I explained the results of my research regarding hearing loss in hemodialysis patients (dialysis, ed). In hemodialysis patients, hearing loss often occurs due to many factors,” said Kania.
According to her, explaining the results of her research in front of experts from various parts of the world is quite thrilling. “I was very nervous at first because I felt inferior about meeting experts from various countries, but all of our fears disappeared when I met them in person. They are very kind, very humble and give us a lot of valuable input, ” she said.
For Kania and Ratih, the meeting opened up their insights on audiology issues and developments in the world. Both students realized the development of audiology in Indonesia was still lacking compared to other countries.
“One of the less developed field of audiology in Indonesia is Speech Pathology or commonly called speech therapy. Most of the participants who took part in the IALP were Speech Pathology students. Initially I was confused about what the study program because in Indonesia I have never heard it, “said Kania. For Kania, indirectly most countries have begun to realize the importance of hearing loss and there is Speech Pathology program in their countries.
Kania and Ratih were also accompanied by their supervisor, Dr. Nyilo Purnami, dr., Sp.THT-KL (K), FICS, FISCM. Dr. Nyilo herself is also a member of Indonesia’s representative at IALP.
“The 2019 IALP conference is very useful for my students’ experience and knowledge. This event also opened my horizons in the field I was engaged in, namely audiology, ” she stated.
Author: Arya Ivan Mahendra
Editor : Khefti Al Mawalia
