Robert Traynor

Robert M. Traynor, Ed.D., is a hearing industry consultant, trainer, professor, conference speaker, practice manager and author. He is a founding member of HHTM and had previously written a regular weekly column for the site for many years. He has decades of experience teaching courses and training clinicians within the field of audiology with specific emphasis in hearing and tinnitus rehabilitation. He serves as Adjunct Faculty in Audiology at the University of Florida, University of Northern Colorado, University of Colorado and The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Global Issues in Hearing Care: Dynamics, Problems and Solutions: Part III

This week at Hearing International we have the third in the series of articles by guest author Siamak Sani discussing Global Market Dynamics. Siamak Sani has worked with various technologies and distributors to address the world’s hearing impairment with his technology and products. It is our pleasure at Hearing International to again have this unique perspective on the problems of bringing hearing healthcare to the international community. Global Market

Global Issues in Hearing Care: Dynamics, Problems & Solutions: Part II

This week at Hearing International is the second in the series of articles by guest author Siamak Sani discussing Global Market Dynamics. As presented last week, as an entrepreneur Siamak has worked with various technologies and distributors to address the world’s hearing impairment with his technology and products. It is our pleasure at Hearing International to again have this unique perspective on the problems of bringing hearing

Global Issues in Hearing Care: Dynamics, Problems & Solutions, Part I

A number of years ago I met Siamak Sani at an audiology meeting in Wyoming. At that time, he was passionate about bringing highest audio quality hearing instruments and hearing healthcare to the third world. As a seasoned entrepreneur, Siamak has spent the past 15 years in the hearing industry and continues his work towards addressing the world’s hearing impairment with

Featured image for “Joao’s Acoustic Throne”

Joao’s Acoustic Throne

Most of the current generation of practicing audiologists learned the history of hearing aids, not from the pages of the Internet sites, but from Dr. Kenneth W. Berger’s treatise on the history of hearing aids. The Hearing Aid: Its Operation and Development was first published some 45 years ago in 1970 by the National Hearing Aid Society (now the International Hearing Aid

Featured image for “The Road to the Vacuum Tube Hearing Aid”

The Road to the Vacuum Tube Hearing Aid

As we saw last week at Hearing international, the road to a working portable electric hearing instrument involved a series of inventions such as the telephone and the carbon microphone before Miller Reese Hutchinson put the parts together and presented the world with a working electronic hearing device. Recall that the carbon microphone was invented in 1878 and by 1896 or so Hutchinson presented his

Featured image for “The Road to the First Electric Portable Hearing Aid….and Beyond”

The Road to the First Electric Portable Hearing Aid….and Beyond

Fought between 1861 and 1865 over the issue of slavery, the American Civil War was one of the bloodiest wars ever, with 620,000 soldiers losing their lives on both the Union and Confederate sides. Since the Confederacy lost the war, life in the southern part of the United States was difficult in the post War days. As the South was rebuilt and readmitted

Featured image for “Structure of the Ear and the Leaning Tower of Pisa”

Structure of the Ear and the Leaning Tower of Pisa

Now what could the Leaning Tower of Pisa possibly have to do with structure of the ear? Here’s the story of how Pisa influenced an explanation of how the cochlea is constructed and how it relates to other spirals that occur in nature. First The Background In the late 10th and 11th centuries, the Republic of Pisa was a Tuscan powerhouse nation. At

Featured image for “Noise Control…..Down On The Farm! Part II”

Noise Control…..Down On The Farm! Part II

Agriculture is an industry in which workers encounter a wide variety of occupational exposures. The physical hazards from chemicals, accidents, agricultural machinery, animals and other hazards often result in immediate and obvious injuries that are easily recognized. Noise that accompanies many farming tasks causes the more insidious onset of noise-induced hearing loss. Farming is ranked among the top occupations with the highest

Featured image for “Noise Control – Down on the Farm! Part I”

Noise Control – Down on the Farm! Part I

Audiologists and other health professionals around the world have recognized for decades that noise exposure is a health hazard. Governments worldwide control the amount of noise exposure for known hazard occupations such as manufacturing, construction, and other high noise work places. Just as noisy and sometimes much worse, recreational noises such as firearms, motorcycles, race tracks, music, and other loud

Featured image for “Neuroplasticity and Hearing”

Neuroplasticity and Hearing

The brain’s ability to reorganize itself by forming new neural connections throughout life is called Neuroplasticity. The neuroplasticity process allows the neurons (nerve cells) in the brain to compensate for injury and disease by adjusting their activities in response to new situations or to changes in their environment. Medicine.Net (2015) describes the process as brain reorganizing by “axonal sprouting” where undamaged axons grow