This was the first world Congress dedicated to an auditory symptom. Just a decade ago very few Researchers could predict such an evolution of tinnitus from a neglected minor symptom to a phenomenon of top interest in hearing and neuroscience all over the world.

My first contact with tinnitus was back in 1989 when I went to Boston to do a post-Doctoral fellowship in the Department of Otolaryngology of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. I was then a Research fellow in the Temporal Bone Laboratory under Professor Harold F Schuknecht. I decided then to study tinnitus from a temporal bone Histopathology perspective. As I started studying and thinking about tinnitus and the relation of its symptom with hearing loss and temporal bone findings I realized how interesting and fascinating tinnitus really is.

After returning to Brasilia University I continued to study tinnitus using now electro-physiology and trying to find out markers of tinnitus from an electro-physiology stand point. I was fortunate enough to meet Professor Abraham Shulman in a meeting of the Prosper Meniere Society in Colorado. Since then I have been working in close collaboration with him trying to understand tinnitus. I wrote an article for the first issue of International Tinnitus Journal-Thinking about Tinnitus- and this started my relation with the Journal, now 20 years old. I was invited to be a faculty in the 12th International Tinnitus Seminar and 1st World Tinnitus Congress. It was a wonderful experience to me and I could fully understand the great interest for researchers in several fields, towards tinnitus.

It was a very successful event, well attended people from all over the world and with interesting scientific programs. It was amazing to me to verify that people finally realized how tinnitus is such a fascinating topic to study.

Several professionals in different Medical specialties like Otolaryngologist, Neurologist, Neuroscience researchers, Audiologists and others have interest in tinnitus as a very important phenomenon to learn about all these different fields. Neuroscience today is a central research field and tinnitus is an important instrument to learn about this area of Medical knowledge.

I presented 2 contributions; there were about 25 Otolaryngologists from Brazil in the Congress. As a general comment it is consensual that TRT, cognitive therapies and other methods based on Neuroscience knowledge are predominant in tinnitus therapy.

Twenty years ago when professors Abraham Shulman, Claus Claussen and Barbara Goldstein founded the International Tinnitus Journal (ITJ) as a publication dedicated to tinnitus many thought it wouldn’t last long because tinnitus was such an unimportant thing to study. After twenty years of continuous publication ITJ is alive and vibrant and tinnitus is indeed a very important topic for clinical and basic research. To the point of having a World Congress like the one I just saw in Warsaw. Foreseeing the future is a characteristic of great men and women like Professors Shulman, Claussen and Godstein.

The next World Tinnitus Congress will take place in Turkistan’s Capital City 3 years from now. Certainly new and exciting knowledge on tinnitus will be ready to be discussed by professionals from different fields of Medical knowledge.

Having helped to keep ITJ alive during the last 5 years and knowing it is now strong and headed towards improvement I am especially happy at this point of time. Tinnitus and ITJ are clearly very apt to walk into the future.