Pamela Gabriels has been practising audiology since qualifying in 1977. Pam became interested in tinnitus in the late 1980’s while working at the Veterans Affairs hospital. There she encountered many veterans highly distressed with tinnitus and she decided to find out what was being done in other parts of the World to help patients with severe tinnitus. Pam travelled to the USA, visiting established world class centres in Portland Oregon and Minneapolis; and to the UK, where she sat in with experts conducting pioneering clinics for the management of tinnitus & hyperacusis. Pam returned to Australia with all this knowledge as well as bringing back one of the first tinnitus synthesizers developed in Professor Vernon’s lab in Portland.
Pam was awarded the Certificate of Outstanding Service by the Audiological Society of Australia in 2000. She was also elected to the 8-member board of Deafness Forum, the peak group for deafness in Australia. She has been very active as a member of the Federal executive for the Audiological Society of Australia, chairing the ethics committee, preparing the first standards of practice for audiologists and serving as Federal Vice president. Pam has presented at International tinnitus conferences in Oregon, Cambridge and Warsaw.
Pam spread the word about tinnitus management to scores of other audiologists by organising scientific programs for workshops. She won the bid to host the first International Tinnitus conference in Australia in 2002. Ever passionate about the provision of quality service to patients, she has been instrumental in bringing to Australia, a number of times, the World Authority Professor Pawel lastreboff, to teach audiologists about tinnitus and its treatment with Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT).