Professor Kelvin Kong advocates strongly for improving the health, hearing, education and life opportunities of young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, especially through early detection and treatment of ear disease.

As an Indigenous surgeon and a proud Worimi man, he has focused much of his work on chronic ear infections (otitis media or "glue ear"), which affect Indigenous children at some of the highest rates in the world. He argues that untreated hearing loss can seriously affect speech, language development, school participation and future employment opportunities.