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 “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
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Mar. 21, 2017

Treating the Cochlea, not the Audiogram: The Value of Good Audiology

Holly Hosford-Dunn
by Brian Taylor “Signal & Noise” is a bimonthly column by Brian Taylor, AuD Recall the term “good audiology” is loosely defined as a combination of science and art that cannot be duplicated by a computer algorithm. The first two Signal and Noise posts of 2017 were devoted to this concept of “good audiology” and why – even in this
Featured image for “US Hearing Device Patents for February 2017”
Mar. 14, 2017

US Hearing Device Patents for February 2017

Holly Hosford-Dunn
“Not your father’s Oldsmobile” was a 1980s ad campaign to shake the geriatric stigma attached to such cars by featuring an “Aerotech” futuristic model (Fig 1). Likewise, “Not your grandfather’s hearing aid” is a recurring theme in our industry  as technology moves to reduce stigma and introduce integrated, futuristic audio processing systems (feature image above) which use hearing aids and wireless
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Mar. 07, 2017

Dominance in a Patent Class

Holly Hosford-Dunn
Charting patent trends can track technological innovation and stagnation by proxy variables such as geography (countries, metropolitan areas), industry concentration, education (proximity of universities, proportion of PhDs), income per capita, etc. One measure is growth and dominance of patent classes by an industry or company.  Of interest to the hearing aid industry is its representation in Class H04R patents. That