Dr. Hosford-Dunn began blogging in her audiology private practice in Tucson, AZ. Back in 2009, blogging was a new and interesting way to quickly share and improve information with colleagues, consumers, and patients. As blogging gained attention, she had the opportunity to serve as chief editor of a multi-author blog for an hearing industry publication. The format was fun and successful. It rapidly evolved into Hearing Health & Technology Matters! (HHTM), an independent blogsite that she founded in partnership with other colleagues in 2011. Since its inception, Dr. Hosford-Dunn has served as HHTM’s first Editor-in-Chief, then Managing Editor, and now is CFO of the organization. After graduating with a BA and MA in Communication Disorders from New Mexico State, she completed a PhD in Hearing Sciences at Stanford and did post-docs at Max Planck Institute (Germany) and Eaton-Peabody Auditory Physiology Lab (Boston). Post-education, she directed the Stanford University Audiology Clinic; developed multi-office private practices in Arizona; authored/edited numerous text books, chapters, journals, and articles; and taught Marketing, Practice Management, Hearing Science, Auditory Electrophysiology, and Amplification in a variety of academic settings. Dr. Hosford-Dunn participates in life long learning by writing weekly posts and by embracing sequential learning endeavors. She spent a year training with the Gemological Institute of America, gaining certification as a Graduate Gemologist (GIA). She graduated with a B.A. in Economics and Psychology from the University of Arizona in 2013. Currently — and probably forever — she studies the Spanish language.
Featured image for “The Poor Student Posts:  Cost of an AuD”
May. 28, 2013

The Poor Student Posts: Cost of an AuD

Holly Hosford-Dunn
“Investing in a doctoring degree in Audiology hinges on expectations and outcomes that should be anchored in real data.”  So began a previous post.  The theme is picked up today by Kevin Liebe, AuD, launching a series on AuD costs, based on data we’ve been collecting from representative educational programs.  You may be surprised.   HOW much does that AuD degree
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May. 21, 2013

Student Loans Slow Economic Recovery — It’s Personal

Holly Hosford-Dunn
It is a big social experiment that we’ve accidentally decided to engage in. Let’s send a whole class of people out into their professional lives with a negative net worth starting at minus tens of thousands of dollars. Those minus signs have psychological impact and a dollars-and-cents impact on what you can afford, too. {{1}}[[1]]Paraphrase of a quote by Kevin Carey, director of
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May. 13, 2013

Weapons of Cash Destruction

Holly Hosford-Dunn
 Cash is King.  Practices that fail to pledge fealty to Cash risk death or dismemberment by the villains that burn cash for fun.   Bwahahaha!  As promised in the previous post in this series, today wraps up the series with a rogue’s gallery of the biggest and baddest cash flow villains.  Not surprisingly, all the big villains are internal weaknesses,
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May. 07, 2013

Hearing Device Patent Activity for March and April 2013

Holly Hosford-Dunn
Wow, the last two months saw a lot of patent activity for hearing devices from a lot of competitors, most outside the US.  Click the links for previous lists (Jan-Feb 2013 and  Nov-Dec 2012), neither of which matches today’s in length.  Widex jumped in with a bunch of patents, Samsung won most innovative title (“small hearing aid”).  Just kidding.  South
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May. 01, 2013

War of the Patent Worlds: US Supreme Court Disses Widex, Oticon and Denmark

Holly Hosford-Dunn
On January 1, Hearing Economics took a stab at describing the $31M award in damages against William Demant and Widex for “willful infringement” of patent technology that reduces hearing aid feedback.{{1}}[[1]]Widex A/S and Widex USA, Inc. v. Energy Transportation Group, Inc., No. 12-1136[[1]] Click on these links to read the Oct 12 2012 opinion or hear the fascinating audio of oral arguments in the US
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Apr. 24, 2013

For Whom the Bell Tolls: 101 Cash Flow Ways to Kill Your Practice

Holly Hosford-Dunn
If a business is constantly struggling with its bottom line, this could create long-term problems from which it might not recover.   How dreary.  I promise to move to more upbeat topics soon. But for now, it’s Cash Flow problems–shorthand for “constantly struggling with the bottom line.”  Cash Flow was discussed in general last week and we’re into specifics this
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Apr. 17, 2013

King Cash

Holly Hosford-Dunn
Lots of small businesses fail but not for lack of successful services and products.  Those may be stellar, but it’s the ebb and flow of cash that sinks or floats your practice.  Over 60% of business failures occur because cash flow slows to a trickle, crashes against the rocks, hits the rapids, whirlpools, floods the delta, disappears  down a sink
Apr. 09, 2013

Growth and Gender Politics: “Women Jobs” and “Women Wages”

Holly Hosford-Dunn
Audiologists are on the low end of the pay scale compared to similar doctoring professions.  Independent of profession, women get paid less than men. The higher the educational level, the bigger the gender wage gap. Those are generalized facts from recent posts.  It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the next step in the analysis:  the Audiology profession is overwhelmingly
Apr. 02, 2013

An Ear Full From Canada

Holly Hosford-Dunn
Ryan Kalef returns as today’s Guest Editor.  Regular readers of Hearing Economics recall Ryan as the intrepid reporter who slogs through the north lands,  sending brief dispatches of what’s up in Canadian Audiology.  Ryan and the TV program he mentions touch on a host of economic issues of interest to Hearing Economics — including “Country Pricing”  and lack of price transparency.
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Mar. 26, 2013

To Be or Not To Be an Audiologist

Holly Hosford-Dunn
Investing in a doctoring degree in Audiology hinges on expectations and outcomes that should be anchored in real data.  We’re not there yet, but discussing it is a start.  Last week left off here:  it boils down to  doing a self-examination of expectations and anticipations in order to forecast whether the graduate degree is a good or poor investment.  The