Wayne Staab

Dr. Staab is an internationally recognized authority in hearing aids. As President of Dr. Wayne J. Staab and Associates, he is engaged in consulting, research, development, manufacturing, education, and marketing projects related to hearing. His professional career has included University teaching, hearing clinic work, hearing aid company management and sales, and extensive work with engineering in developing and bringing new technology and products to the discipline of hearing. This varied background allows him to couple manufacturing and business with the science of acoustics to bring innovative developments and insights to our discipline. Dr. Staab has authored numerous books, chapters, and articles related to hearing aids and their fitting, and is an internationally-requested presenter. He is a past President and past Executive Director of the American Auditory Society and a retired Fellow of the International Collegium of Rehabilitative Audiology. Interests engaged in outside of the above include: fishing, hunting, hiking, mountain biking, golf, travel, tennis, softball, lecturing, sporting clays, 4-wheeling, archery, swimming, guitar, computers, and photography. These are great topics of discussion away from business.

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Auriculostomy – First Surgical Hearing Aid Approach

This post provides an historical archive to the application of hearing aids. The auriculostomy may have been the first surgical hearing aid involvement in the fitting of amplification in that it provided an alternate approach to the application of corrective amplification involving ear-level hearing aids1. This was in 1975. It was an invention of Charles Strzalkowski, an innovative and creative

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Ignore Listening in Quiet Hearing Aid Setting?

Hearing-impaired individuals, and especially older adults, find it difficult to perceive speech, especially in noise conditions. Many turn to hearing aids to help resolve this difficulty. However, when they receive their programmed devices, the primary setting is for listening in quiet. To help resolve this problem, most hearing aids today are programmed for different environmental listening conditions. It is

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Categorization of PSAPs?

This post is a continuation of two previous posts relating to a proposed PSAP “Standard” (OTC Hearing Aid Standard, and PSAP Standard Review). This post relates to a section of the proposed “Standard” relating to the “categorization of PSAPs” (personal sound amplification products).1 Categorization – Criteria for Standardization It is not clear what the purpose is for categories

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PSAP Standard Review

Legislation recently passed in the U.S. House of Representatives1 and expected to be passed soon in the U.S. Senate2, requires the FDA to establish an OTC (over-the-counter) hearing aid category for adults with perceived mild-to-moderate hearing impairment, within three years. This category is estimated to overlap the hearing levels of approximately 60-80% of all hearing aids sold in the U.S. market

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OTC Hearing Aid Standard

Both PCAST1 (President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology) and NAS2 (National Academies of Sciences) have recommended that OTC (over-the-counter) hearing aid sales be permitted for mild-to-moderate hearing losses. Additionally, the SB 9 Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act of 2016 introduced by Senators Warren and Grassley calls for the same. These recommendations resulted from the identification of problems with the

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Hearing Aid OTC Sales and Self-Fitting

On July 12th, 2017 the U.S. House of Representatives passed the FDA Reauthorization Act of 2017, which includes the Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act, and allows for hearing aid OTC sales.1 The Act creates a new class of over-the-counter hearing aids and allows non-prescription hearing devices to be marketed to treat mild-to-moderate hearing loss. This bill is incorporated into the

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Tablet Audiometry for Remote Region Access

by Matthew Bromwich, M.D.* Outreach work comes with many challenges, not the least of which is transportation of medical equipment. As an ENT surgeon, I travel with a portable audiometer. Typically, this device is a donated, tabletop, wired suitcase device with a handle. We have traveled to remote communities up north and to our outreach work in east Africa using

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OTC Self-Fitting of Hearing Aids – Part II

Until recently, hearing aids supposedly weren’t able to be purchased over-the-counter (OTC). Instead, consumers had to have a professional evaluate their hearing loss, set the hearing aid’s performance, and teach proper use. However, recent OTC sales of hearing aid legislation has opened the door to focus on OTC self-fitting of hearing aids. Why is Self-Fitting of Hearing Aids an

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Self-Fitting of Hearing Devices – Part I

Self-fitting of hearing devices is an inherent feature of OTC or DTC (over-the-counter; direct-to-consumer) hearing aids. What can we expect now that this is becoming an active feature of hearing aid sales? The real issue, as expressed by Bess1, is not how an OTC or DTC hearing aid delivery system benefits hearing aid manufacturers and hearing professionals, but will this

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OTC/PSAP For All Losses?

This post discussion is a continuation of previous posts related to comments that many hearing professionals have expressed with concerns that OTC/PSAP hearing aid sales will result in dissatisfied users because: The instruments are not professionally fitted An audiogram is necessary OTC-sold devices (previously defined as PSAPs) are of poor quality and will not meet the needs of the hearing