Professor Adrian Davis

The translation of research into real-world patient services is a cause which is very close to Adrian’s heart. After years of research led him to believe in the necessity and feasibility of screening all new-born children for deafness, he lobbied the Department of Health (DoH) extensively to set up a new-born hearing screening programme.

“They agreed but said,‘If you want it so much, you do it!’” he laughs, and was more than happy to do so. A large newly announced DoH grant will enable his team to fully implement and quality assure the resulting national programme, which is already 70% complete.

Adrian was brought up in Cheltenham, where he worked for a time as a research chemist for the National Coal Board before leaving to test his vocation as a Benedictine monk. Later, his theological and philosophical interests turned into a degree in Psychology and Mathematical Statistics at Exeter, followed by a Master’s degree in Mathematical Psychology at Stirling. During this period – with Health Secretary John Reid as a contemporary – he became fascinated with how people learn to communicate and to recognise sounds and faces.

Part-time work as head of the clearing room at the Universities’ Central Council on Admissions (UCCA) meant that he started his London PhD rather later than other students, but his emerging interest in public health issues quickly led to a 1977 lectureship at St. Thomas’ Hospital. His experience at University College London, programming one of the first computerised psychological experimental workstations,was to prove invaluable to a study into smoking amongst eight year olds, which ultimately revealed teachers to be greater influencers than parents.

Soon his marriage to Kate, who lectured in English at Birmingham and is now Deputy Principal of Newman College, necessitated a move. After temporary jobs at the Universities of Warwick and Coventry studying the neuropsychology of handedness he joined the MRC Hearing Research Institute at Nottingham, to begin his major ‘research into practice’ project the Newborn Hearing Screening Programme (NHSP).

Experimental studies of the language development of deaf children have long shown that the later deafness is diagnosed the more likely they are to have poor language and cognitive skills. Thanks to the efforts of Adrian and his team all 600 000 babies born each year in the UK will soon be screened, and the 1100 with hearing impairment immediately identified. The implementation of the programme across the country should be complete by the end of the year and there is currently a massive training programme in place, implementing a level 3 NVQ specially developed for the screeners. Large numbers of health professionals and clinicians have also already been trained in preparation, in everything from leadership to the genetics of hearing.

Believing strongly in a holistic approach the team is also developing models of support for deaf children and their parents.These include a family centre in London with nursery, dance and play facilities and on-site professional health workers; and a virtual centre in the North West offering video-conferencing, information systems and team meetings across at least 17 local authorities to underpin support services on the ground. But Adrian’s work isn’t confined to the younger end of the spectrum. His studies of partial deafness in the over 60s have revealed that psychological barriers to wearing a hearing aid cause sufferers to lose out on a much improved quality of life, and his unit is also investigating the effects of loud noise on the hearing of young adults at rock concerts or in the workplace. His work on the innovative use of private sector resources has also been a major factor in the introduction of public private partnerships into the NHS.

As Director of the Medical Research Council’s Hearing and Communications Group, and with a long string of other professional roles and responsibilities, he still manages to find some time for his wife and three children, his Parish Council work and to indulge his hobby of statistics.

Professionally however his mission remains to ‘do it in the real world’. “We must continue to raise the profile of translational research in non-genetic disciplines,” he insists,“to allow the timely, informed development of healthcareservices which benefit the community at large.” Certainly the monastic orders’ loss all those years ago has ended up being healthcare services’ gain, and many future generations of hearing-impaired children will have a lot to thank him for.

Article taken from UniLife Volume 2 Issue 13 (23rd May 2005)
http://www.manchester.ac.uk/pdfs/unilife/largefile,27020,en.pdf