Prof. Ricardo Bento, Titular Professor of the Department of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology of FMUSP, was nominated to integrate the Lancet Commission for Global Hearing Loss. This is the largest worldwide initiative in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO) for prevention, treatment and rehabilitation in deafness in the world.

Integrating the Commission there are other renowned researchers in the area: Prof. Blake Wilson and Debora Tucci, from the Duke University, in the USA, Bolajoko Olusanya, of Nigeria and Shelly Chada, director of the WHO programme for prevention of deafness and hearing loss, in Switzerland.

Prof. Ricardo Bento is also president of the Ontology and Neurology Committee of the International Federation of Otorhino Laryngological Societies and dedicated his career to ear diseases, especially to the treatment of deafness. He published more than 300 articles in national and international medical journals and has two treaties on the subject

For three years, the five commissioners must develop constructive strategies of public politics of prevention, treatment and rehabilitation of deafness in the three levels of health attention. By the end of the work, the strategies published in the English medical journal Lancet, one of the publication channels with the biggest scientific impact rate (8.04), should be structured as propositions and strategies to be adopted by the WHO and all other member countries.

According to the 2013 and 2015 reports from WHO, deafness is on the top list among the most incapacitating and higher impact diseases in the life quality index. In the world, about 500 million people have moderate and/or severe deafness. There are projections this number can increase for up to 900 million people in 2050, which represents 1 in every 10 inhabitants of planet Earth with hearing problems, numbers which promoted a redirection of the WHO public health strategies.