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 “Treating the Right Patient with the Right Service at the Right Time: Thriving in the Era of Managed Care and OTCs”
May. 30, 2017

Treating the Right Patient with the Right Service at the Right Time: Thriving in the Era of Managed Care and OTCs

Holly Hosford-Dunn
by Brian Taylor “Signal & Noise” is a bimonthly column by Brian Taylor, AuD. The first two installments of this series in Signal and Noise column were devoted to the use of some relatively routine clinical measurements as part of the practice of “good audiology”.  The basic message of those previous columns was this: Audiologists and hearing aid dispensers need
Featured image for “And Now, The Rest of the Story (with apologies to Paul Harvey)”
May. 23, 2017

And Now, The Rest of the Story (with apologies to Paul Harvey)

Holly Hosford-Dunn
by Harvey Abrams, PhD. “Peeling the Onion” is a monthly column by Harvey Abrams, PhD.    Disclaimer: I am a paid consultant to the Hearing Industries Association (HIA) and contributed to the post-workshop filing submitted to the FTC on behalf of HIA which I review in this article. However, the opinions expressed here are entirely mine and do not necessarily
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May. 17, 2017

The Costco Way: Ya Gotta Eat and Ya Oughta Hear

Holly Hosford-Dunn
But ya don’t gotta see an audiologist to hear better, if you do it the Costco Way.  That Way is putting pressure on the traditional medical model of hearing aid dispensing, which is under siege from all quarters — Big Boxes, Internet, PSAPs, OTC legislation, Hearables — and is not likely to sustain in its present form and clout for
Featured image for “US Hearing Device Patents for April 2017”
May. 09, 2017

US Hearing Device Patents for April 2017

Holly Hosford-Dunn
Audiologists and hearing scientists are familiar with human equal loudness contours (feature image above).  Samsung is too, using those contours in its patent #9635459 to control signal input gain to protect against noise induced hearing loss.    Samsung Exits the Ear to Aid Hearing   Or, better yet, why not fully protect the ear and hearing by skipping the ear altogether,
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May. 02, 2017

Physician Patient Communication: Does Hearing Status Matter? part 1

Holly Hosford-Dunn
Downstream Consequences of Aging is a bi-monthly series written by guest columnist Barbara Weinstein, PhD.    A continuous two-way process, communication involves the exchange of both verbal and non-verbal messages. Essential to communication are: the ability of the sender to encode the information, the ability of the recipient to hear, understand, and process the information (aka decode), and the opportunity
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Apr. 25, 2017

The Plural of Anecdote is NOT Data

Holly Hosford-Dunn
by Harvey Abrams, PhD. “Peeling the Onion” is a monthly column by Harvey Abrams, PhD. I participated in two events this week. One informed the other. The first event was the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Workshop held in Washington DC on April 18th. The other was the March for Science  which, in my current geographical location, took place in St.
Featured image for “US Hearing Device Patents for March 2017”
Apr. 18, 2017

US Hearing Device Patents for March 2017

Holly Hosford-Dunn
In 2016, IBM inventors were awarded more than 22 patents/day. That includes one last June in its “cognitive healthcare patent” group for a Smart Hearing Aid (USPTO #9374649). It looks a lot like the Smart Hearing Aid patents IBM was awarded (USPTO #9609441 & #9609442) in the March 2017 list below (see feature image above).  Same name, same inventors, same diagrams,
Featured image for “Costco’s Business Model: Build It and They Will Come”
Apr. 12, 2017

Costco’s Business Model: Build It and They Will Come

Holly Hosford-Dunn
Costco has enthusiastically embraced hearing aids as store-in-store revenue builders in all of its burgeoning warehouse locations since the mid-90s. The rate of Costco hearing aid center growth (feature image, red) has outstripped warehouse growth (blue) in recent years. Both are on fast tracks. Last Giant Standing, Building-Wise Costco’s Big Box footprint is large on the land (Fig 1). There’s
Featured image for “Costco Growth – Get Your Hot Dogs and Hearing Aids Here!”
Apr. 04, 2017

Costco Growth – Get Your Hot Dogs and Hearing Aids Here!

Holly Hosford-Dunn
Costco growth has always been spectacular since its inception as a single warehouse in Seattle in 1983. Starting from scratch, Costco was the first company to grow sales to $3B in less than six years. By 2015, it ranked #2 in global retailing, just behind Walmart. The Big Box That Always Thinks Outside the Box Costco’s success is formulaic and time-tested. A limited
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Mar. 28, 2017

Over the Counter and Through the Woods to FTC’s House We Go

Holly Hosford-Dunn
by Harvey Abrams, PhD. “Peeling the Onion” is a monthly column by Harvey Abrams, PhD.   It has NOT been a quiet week in Lake Woebegone. Legislation has been introduced in both the Senate and the House of Representatives to permit over-the-counter (OTC) hearing devices to be sold to the public without any requirement for professional involvement. Similar legislation was