History of the Tinnitus Research Consortium.

This article describes the creation and accomplishments of the Tinnitus Research Consortium (TRC), founded and supported through philanthropy and intended to enrich the field of tinnitus research. Bringing together a group of distinguished auditory researchers, most of whom were not involved in tinnitus research, over the fifteen years of its life it developed novel research approaches and recruited a number of new investigators into the field. The purpose of this special issue is to highlight some of the significant accomplishments of the investigators supported by the TRC.

Strategies and accomplishments of the Tinnitus Research Consortium.

The Tinnitus Research Consortium (TRC) is sponsored by a philanthropist who wants to accelerate progress in basic and clinical research on tinnitus. The TRC consists of 12 distinguished auditory scientists who began meeting in 1998 twice a year for brainstorming for new research approaches to tinnitus, developing requests for applications, judging the scientific merit of the applications received and reviewing the progress of funded projects. Through these efforts, common confounding variables in tinnitus research have been identified, and solutions to these problems have been suggested.

Strategies of the Tinnitus Research Consortium.

Conclusions: Research supported by private philanthropy complements governmental support of research, and its organization can undertake analysis of the whole field, identify the initial steps required to advance the field, draw attention to the intellectual challenge of a field such as tinnitus, recruit scientists to a neglected area, direct support to the most promising research approaches and opportunities, and dedicate support to those endeavors.

Objectives: The efforts of the Tinnitus Research Consortium (TRC) are to accelerate progress in basic and clinical research on tinnitus.

Methods: The TRC analyzes the field of tinnitus research, brainstorms for new research approaches to tinnitus and provides guidance to the scientific community through requests for applications (RFAs) on promising research approaches and opportunities.

Progress in the prevention of otitis media through immunization.

Objective: To review the progress that has been made in developing effective vaccines against the major bacterial pathogens responsible for acute otitis media.

Data Source: Review of the literature with the aid of the MEDLINE database using the search terms otitis media and otitis media and vaccine.

Data Extraction: Data were collected from clinical trials and laboratory studies.