Otorhinolaryngology has an extensive history that spans nearly five millennia, and the history of women as medical and surgical practitioners stretches back to at least 3500 BC.

To explore the history of women in ENT from ancient to modern times, and discover their fascinating role in this field over the years.

A literature review was conducted using Google Scholar and PubMed.

In ancient and medieval times, there were female doctors accomplished in areas pertaining to ENT. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, inspirational women pioneers paved the way for modern female ENT surgeons. This led to a rapid increase in the representation of female otorhinolaryngologists in clinical practice and authorship over the last fifty years.

The contribution of women to otorhinolaryngology has evolved since ancient times and the greatest advancement has occurred within the last two hundred years.

Undergraduate medical education requires ongoing improvement in order to keep pace with the changing demands of twenty-first century medical practice. Problem-based learning is increasingly being adopted in medical schools worldwide. We review its application in the specialty of ENT, and we present our experience of using this approach combined with more traditional methods.

We introduced problem-based learning techniques into the ENT course taught to fifth-year medical students at Al-Ahsa College of Medicine, King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia. As a result, the teaching schedule included both clinical and theoretical activities. Six clinical teaching days were allowed for history-taking, examination techniques and clinical scenario discussion. Case scenarios were discussed in small group teaching sessions. Conventional methods were employed to teach audiology and ENT radiology (one three-hour session each); a three-hour simulation laboratory session and three-hour student presentation were also scheduled. In addition, students attended out-patient clinics for three days, and used multimedia facilities to learn about various otolaryngology diseases (in another three-hour session). This input was supplemented with didactic teaching in the form of 16 instructional lectures per semester (one hour per week).

From our teaching experience, we believe that the application of problem-based learning to ENT teaching has resulted in a substantial increase in students' knowledge. Furthermore, students have given encouraging feedback on their experience of combined problem-based learning and conventional teaching methods.