Canada

Murray Morrison (Vancouver)

Professional state
Indendependent specialty of its own standing?
in Canada, phoniatrics is not an independent specialty of its own standing. Equivalent services to persons with communication disorders are provided by a combination of individuals including otolaryngologists, speech
pathologists, audiologists and probably others as well. I believe that the situation in Canada is very similar to that of the United States.

-Official subspecialty to ENT
Laryngology may be considered a subspecialty of ENT, but in this country a laryngologist does not receive the broad training in communication that would be expected within a phoniatrics program in Europe. As multi-disciplinary voice clinics evolve, laryngologists within them share skills and expertise with others on the team, particularly speech pathologists, to the point where the otolaryngologist members acquire a much wider range of knowledge and skills. This means that the laryngologist may be able to provide services to patients in a manner more closely resembling the European phoniatrist.

-Official subspecialty to others? no

-Unofficial specialization as to voice? speech? language? hearing?
Most individuals that develop special interest in voice, speech, language and hearing do so from a background in speech pathology or audiology, rather than Otolaryngology.

-Number of university departments
There are 13 Otolaryngology training programs in Canada, 10 anglophone andthree francophone.

-Number of doctors working in the field
There are approximately 700 otolaryngologists practicing in Canada. One,
(MM) has a practice totally dedicated to laryngology and voice disorders.
Within most of the major centers in Canada there is an otolaryngologist with a voice care interest who works in cooperation with a speech pathologist to care for voice disordered patients.

There are a number of Otolaryngologists in Canada with added experience and training in laryngology and voice. The list includes:
Halifax: Dr Elhami Attia
Quebec: Dr Guy Parent
Montreal: Dr Karen Kost, Dr Francoise Chagnon
Toronto: Dr Peter Alberti, Dr Jonathan Irish, Dr Jennifer Anderson
My current fellow, Dr Simon Gagnon, will be returning to Quebec next year.
Vancouver is the only site in Canada with a laryngology fellowship.

-relevant web sites for links
http://www.pvcrp.com (Pacific Voice Clinic in Vancouver)
Canadian Society of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck surgery: http://www.csohns.com