Saskia Dawes
Clinic Co-ordinator
Saskia brings years of valuable experience from her time working in busy GP practices, where she developed a strong foundation in administrative and patient-facing roles. She combines excellent communication skills with a calm, personable approach.
At the Harley Street Audiovestibular Clinic, Saskia is at the heart of our front-of-house operations. She expertly manages patient communications, including emails, calls, appointment scheduling, and physiotherapy bookings. Saskia takes pride in delivering a smooth and welcoming experience for every patient and understands that professionalism, empathy, and efficiency are key to providing exceptional care.
Driven by a genuine passion for supporting people with hearing, tinnitus and balance disorders, Saskia goes above and beyond to ensure that each patient’s journey is handled with attention to detail, clarity, and warmth. Her dedication helps set the tone for the high standards of service we uphold at the clinic.
With over 20 years in the NHS, I bring extensive experience in medical transcription and clinical support, having worked across a range of specialties including Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Paediatrics, and most recently, Oral Medicine. Throughout my career, I’ve built a strong foundation in medical terminology and developed an eye for detail, ensuring that each document I produce is thorough, accurate, and ready for clinician review.
I am committed to providing a high standard of service that directly supports patient care and satisfaction. My focus on precision means that every record is meticulously prepared, with any queries flagged for quick resolution to maintain a smooth and reliable documentation process. Driven by a passion for continuous learning, I actively expand my knowledge and develop automated phrases to improve efficiency and consistency in our workflows.
Ultimately, my goal is to contribute to a patient-centred, efficient experience, enabling clinicians to focus more fully on patient needs, confident in the quality of their documentation support.
Dipti is the dedicated Clinic Coordinator at Harley Street Audiovestibular Clinic, bringing a wealth of experience and a compassionate touch to her role. Before joining our team, she spent 13 years at The Clementine Churchill Hospital, including over five years as a Personal Assistant to an ENT Consultant. This experience provided her with invaluable insights into patient care and deepened her commitment to delivering an exceptional patient experience.
Known for her attentiveness and professionalism, Dipti goes above and beyond to ensure each patient feels supported and satisfied throughout their journey with us. From coordinating appointments to addressing email enquiries and providing essential information, she handles every detail with care and precision.
Dipti’s mission is to make each patient’s experience smooth, efficient, and welcoming, setting a high standard of service that reflects the clinic’s commitment to quality care.
Ms. Aida Francisca Lopes
BSc Audiology and speech-language pathology (BASLP), AHCS
Aida Lopes is a licensed Clinical Audiologist registered with the Academy for Healthcare Science in the United Kingdom. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Audiology and Speech-language Pathology from Manipal University (Karnataka, India) and is currently studying for a master’s degree in advanced Audiology at UCL. She has expertise in Diagnosing and rehabilitating hearing loss and hearing disorders for adults, and aural microsuction for adults and teenagers. She has found her niche in assessing and managing tinnitus, hyperacusis, misophonia, and listening difficulties for adults and counselling for hearing loss and hearing therapy.
Aida has experience in Diagnostic and rehabilitative Audiology as well as Tinnitus and hyperacusis management, having previously trained in communications disorders in India and previously worked for several NHS hospitals across London as an Audiologist and currently working as a Specialist Audiologist in a hearing therapy service at a Southwest London NHS trust hospital, UK. Aida’s skillset also extends to her being able to speak English, Hindi, and Konkani fluently and understand Punjabi and Urdu well.
Aida is committed to delivering patient-centred care, with a holistic approach to communication, hearing, listening, and tinnitus management. Her compassionate, understanding, and patient nature ensures that her clients feel comfortable and at ease throughout their visits. Most importantly, she makes them feel heard, which is important for her clients with hearing issues.
Nilesh Parekh
Specialist Vestibular Audiologist
Biography
Nilesh is a very experienced specialist audiologist. He has worked for many years in specialist NHS centres including the Royal National Ear Nose and Throat Hospital as well as Guys and St Thomas’s hospital. Here he gained specialist skills in diagnostic audiology in vestibular and vestibular rehabilitation. He also led specialist clinics for adults with learning difficulties. In his years on the NHS he was a student mentor, teaching new student audiologists and providing clinical training. He has also many years of audiological experience in the private setting, working with many different private audiology care providers from large national companies to independent providers, in which he further developed skills in using state of the art diagnostic and treatment technologies, to better patient care.
Nilesh holds also a degree in Biomedical Sciences, as well as Audiology and believes that audio-vestibular patient care and management is a holistic multi factorial process, that needs detailed levels, of understanding the layers affecting patients.
Dr Benjamin Shaw MBBS BSc(Hons) PGCert(Dist) MRCP(UK)
Consultant Physician in Audiovestibular Medicine
GMC Registration 7169679
Biography
Dr Shaw is a Consultant Physician in Audiovestibular Medicine and Neuro-otology. He is a medical specialist in the diagnosis and management of dizziness, balance disorders, tinnitus and hearing loss.
After studying medicine at University College London, he completed Foundation and then Core Medical Training, before specialising in Audiovestibular Medicine within the Pan-London training programme. He trained at leading institutes including St George’s Hospital, the Royal National Throat Nose & Ear Hospital, The Nuffield Hearing & Speech Centre and Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.
Dr Shaw is a member of the Royal College of Physicians and was awarded a Distinction in the Post-Graduate certificate in ‘Otology & Audiology’ from the UCL Ear Institute. He has presented at national meetings and conferences, has been published in several peer reviewed journals, and was awarded the prestigious 2020 ‘Pat Jobson Prize’ by the British Association of Audiovestibular Physicians for services to Audiovestibular Medicine. He is passionate about training the next generation of doctors, and lectures on dizziness and imbalance at St George’s University of London Medical School.
Dr Shaw is a full-time Consultant in Audiovestibular Medicine at Epsom & St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust. Known for his expert knowledge, compassionate nature and excellent communication, Dr Shaw greatly enjoys working in partnership with his patients, ensuring he provides effective, holistic and patient-centred care.
Preeti Patel
Operations Director & Business Development Manager
Preeti serves as the Operations & Business Development Manager at Harley Street Audiovestibular Clinic, bringing over 20 years of experience within the NHS and extensive expertise in healthcare management. Her leadership is key to the clinic’s operational excellence and strategic development.
In her multifaceted role, Preeti oversees all aspects of the clinic’s daily operations—including clinical coordination, logistics, and service delivery—while also spearheading business development initiatives. She has successfully negotiated collaborations with major healthcare companies and built strategic alliances that have expanded the clinic’s reach and reputation.
Preeti possesses in-depth expertise in working with private health insurance providers, ensuring the clinic maintains strong relationships with major insurers and offers seamless, compliant, and patient-friendly access to insured care. Her knowledge of the insurance landscape enables efficient billing processes, contract negotiation, and service integration that support both clinical and commercial goals.
Her strategic thinking, combined with a patient-centered approach, helps position the clinic as a leader in audiovestibular care. Preeti remains committed to delivering a high-quality experience for patients and partners alike while aligning operational execution with long-term growth.
Vestibular Physiotherapy
Balance is a complex process that relies on the integration of multiple systems including the vision, proprioception (joint position sense), brain (neurology) and the inner ear vestibular system. When any part of this system is impaired, it can lead to symptoms such as dizziness, vertigo, nausea, visual disturbances, and a general feeling of unsteadiness or imbalance.
Vestibular Physiotherapy is a specialised form of rehabilitation designed to retrain the brain to an inner ear balance organ disorder.
At Harley Street Audiovestibular Clinic, our carefully selected Vestibular Physiotherapists are highly skilled with many years of experience in vestibular rehabilitation, able to help a wide variety of patients with balance disorders working closely alongside our medical and audiology teams.
Our vestibular physiotherapists are able to tailor rehabilitation to each individual’s needs and requirements. Rehabilitation may include specific exercises to promote vestibular adaptation, gaze stabilization, visual desensitization, balance retraining, and habituation techniques designed to reduce dizziness and improve stability.
The goal is to restore your sense of equilibrium in a safe, structured, and effective manner, empowering you to return to daily activities with confidence and control.
David Scott
PhD, DClinPsy, CPsychol
Biography
David is a Chartered Psychologist and offers tinnitus therapy remotely. He is registered with the Health and Care Professions Council as a Practitioner Psychologist. He has worked in a range of health services for the past 25 years. He specialises in psychological management of tinnitus and sleep disorders.He also has an interest in misophonia. David has co-authored several articles and book chapters on the management of tinnitus.
Anita Wong
Lead Audiologist
Biography
Anita is our lead Audiologist and is an expert in the field of Audiovestibular Testing with both children and adults with hearing and balance disorders. She is also Deputy Lead and Senior Audiologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London.
Anita qualified from the University of Manchester in 2009 and has over 10 years’ experience in Audiology. She has sound knowledge on various diagnostic assessments and rehabilitation. She has experience fitting a range of hearing aids and bone anchored implantable devices.
Anita has been invited to deliver lectures at various prestigious national and international courses, and regularly trains and teaches the next generation of audiologists.
Anita is an integral part of the team at Harley Street Audiovestibular Clinic, working closely together with Audiovestibular Medicine Doctors to provide the highest quality care to our patients and striving to ensure the best quality standards.
Dr. R Palaniappan MBBS, MS, DLO, FRCS, MSc, FRCP
Consultant in Audio-vestibular Medicine/ Hon. Sr. Lecturer
Royal National Throat Nose and Ear Hospital/ UCLH NHS Foundation Trust
330 Grays Inn Road
LONDON, WC1X 8DA
United Kingdom.
GMC Full Registration with license to practice 4178004
Dr. Rudrapathy Palaniappan is a Consultant Physician in Audiovestibular Medicine with subspecialty interest in neuro-otology. His specialist field involves medical investigation and management of patients with tinnitus, hearing loss, and balance disorders. Dr Palaniappan is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh with a specialist qualification (FRCS) in ENT surgery. He holds a post-graduate diploma (DLO) in ENT surgery from the Royal College of Surgeons of England and MSc degree in Audiological Medicine from University College London. He has been made a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London in the year 2013. I have nearly 30 years’ experience in managing patients with tinnitus, hearing loss, and balance problems.
Dr Palaniappan works as a part-time Consultant Physician in the adult Audiovestibular medicine & Neuro-otology department at the Royal National ENT & Eastman Dental Hospital, which is part of UCLH NHS Foundation Trust. He currently does one neuro-otology clinic and one audiological rehabilitation clinic per week as well as a special hearing clinic for thalassaemia sufferers. He is actively involved in teaching BSc/ MSc students in ENT/audiological science courses at UCL Ear Institute and medical students. He is a clinical supervisor and train specialist registrars in Audiovestibular Medicine.
Dr Palaniappan was an expert member in the NICE (National Institute of Clinical Excellence) committee on hearing loss and contributed to the development of clinical pathway. He has completed two terms as Audiovestibular Medicine Training Programme Director (TPD) for Health Education England, when he also chaired the Specialist Training Committee (STC). He was a member of the SAC (Specialist Advisory Committee) for Audiovestibular Medicine at the Royal College of Physicians and actively contributed to writing knowledge based questions and answers for the specialist training programme.
MEDICAL QUALIFICATIONS
FRCP RCP London June 2013
Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training Audiological Medicine March 1999
MSc (Audiological Medicine) University College London November 1997
FRCS (Otolaryngology) RCS Edinburgh March 1995
DLO RCS England October 1991
PLAB Examination GMC London January 1990
MS (Otolaryngology) Madras University March 1986
DLO Madras University April 1985
MBBS Madras University March 1983
PRESENT POST
1 Jan.2002 – till date
SENIOR CONSULTANT
Department of Audiovestibular Medicine/ Neuro-otology
Royal National ENT & Eastman Dental Hospital
London, United Kingdom.
MEMBER OF LEARNED SOCIETIES
Member of the Royal College of Physicians
Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh
British Association of Audiovestibular Physicians (ex-member of BAAP publicity committee, representative to UK council on deafness)
British Medical Association
University of London Convocation
CHAIN member
Neuro-otological and Equilibriometric Society (NES), Bad Kissingen, Germany
Indian Medical Association
Association of Otolaryngologists of India
Association of Paediatric Otolaryngologists of India
PUBLICATIONS/ ACADEMIC ACTIVITIES
Tinnitus/dtb-BMJ group, article reviewed and comments made. Nov 2012.
Chan C, Palaniappan R. Middle Ear Myoclonus: A New Technique for Suppression of Spontaneous Clicking Tinnitus. International Tinnitus Journal. 2010; 16(1):51-4.
Ratnayake Sudhira, Pajaniappane A, Palaniappan R. Unusual Presentation of Pulsatile Tinnitus – Case Reports. XVth Anniversary Symposium in Audiological Medicine; September 19-22, 2010; Krakow, Poland.
Kowdley H, Palaniappan R. Enlarged Vestibular Aqueduct – An Important Radiological Marker in Branchio Oto-renal and Pendred’s Syndrome (2007); Asian Journal of Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) Vol.10; Issue: 4; 13
Nandi R, Pajaniappane A, Palaniappan R. Real-time video recording of eye movements-an inexpensive system-Short Communication, The Journal of Laryngology & Otology, 1of 2; 2007.
Palaniappan R, Balance disorders in adults – Chapter15, Topics on Otorhinolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Andrew Swift (Ed); Quay Books, A division of MA Health Care Books (2006); pages 142-150.
Dizziness and Tinnitus care pathways for “Medic to Medic” programme, available on the Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust (Free-net) website.
Palaniappan R. How to differentiate problematic dizziness; Pulse Clinical, December 2003: 44-47.
Palaniappan R, Griggs A. Helping patients cope with tinnitus; Pulse Clinical, July 2003: 40-43.
Palaniappan R. Balance disorders in adults-an overview; Hospital Medicine, May 2002; 63/5: 278-81.
Palaniappan R, Sirimanna T. Peripheral vestibular dysfunction in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; International Journal of Paediatric Otorhinolaryngology; 64 (2002) 69-72.
Palaniappan R. The role of Audiological Physician in the Modern National Health Service (NHS); ENT News Nov/Dec 01; 10/5:61-62.
Palaniappan R, Snashall S, Woodcock J. Bilateral profound sensorineural hearing loss following pneumococcal meningitis in sickle cell disease-case report; CME Bulletin – Otorhinolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery.
Palaniappan R. Letter to the Editor ‘ENT News’ 1999; 8/3: 45.
Jayarajan V, Palaniappan R. Hearing Impairment – An unusual presentation of cerebral atrophy. CME Bulletin – Otorhinolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery 1998; 2/2: 67-68.
Palaniappan R. “Peripheral vestibular dysfunction in ME syndrome”, Electronic Publication – abstract in the BAAP web site.
Palaniappan R, Jayarajan V. “Patient Information Leaflets (PILs) – Do people read them?” a preliminary report, Electronic Publication – abstract in the BAAP web site.
Palaniappan R, Jayarajan V. “Neuro-otological manifestations of Multiple Myeloma”, Electronic Publication – abstract in the BAAP web site.
Palaniappan R, Reddy KS. Solitary Bony Metastasis in a case of Carcinoma of the Laryngopharynx. Indian Journal of Otolaryngology 1987; 39/3: 130-31.
TEACHING
Dr Palaniappan teaches regularly in various audiovestibular courses at the Ear Institute. I lectured in the 1st Qatar International Conference on Vestibular Assessment and Rehabilitation in DOHA between the 6th and 8thJanuary 2012. I supervise MSc student projects as required, at regular intervals.
RESEARCH INTEREST
i. Balance Disorders
ii. Autoimmune ear disease
Dr Arun Pajaniappane
Biography
Dr Arun (as he is known to his patients) is our practice manager and a medical consultant at St George’s University Hospitals in Tooting, one of the UK’s largest Audiovestibular medicine units. With a specialist interest in dizziness & vertigo and this being his main workload, and he has gained huge experience having helped hundreds of patients. He also sees patients with hearing loss & tinnitus for medical investigations and advising on management.
Aside clinical medicine, Dr Pajaniappane proudly serves as Honorary Secretary to the British Association of Audiovestibular Physicians, and is coming to the end of his term as Chairperson of the Publicity Committee. He is a big advocate for patients with audio-vestibular disorders and has been passionate about raising awareness of the poorly know speciality of Audiovestibular Medicine to long suffering patients.
Dr Pajaniappane has an active passion and interest in audiovestibular research, particularly Vestibular Migraine and PPPD. His work has been presented at various national and international forums. He has also been an invited author to write chapters in high profile books including on Auditory Neuropathy Spectrum Disorder (ANSD).
Following qualification from the Royal Free & University College London Medical School (BSc and MBBS), Dr Pajaniappane trained in General Medicine and Surgery prior to specialist training in ENT surgery (otolaryngology), and successfully obtaining relevant qualifications (MRCS & DOHNS). Due to his interest in the human balance system and space travel, he then switched training to Audiovestibular Medicine, after also taking a year out to study his Master’s degree which was obtained with Merit.
Dr Pajaniappane has been working as a Consultant in Audiovestibular Medicine at St George’s hospital for the past few years. He has been establishing the research and academic credentials of the department and has recently been awarded research funding as part of an innovative, high profile, national multi-centre trial.
Dr Pajaniappane enjoys treating both children and adults.