HHTM

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – Third Rock Ventures, a biotechnology-focused venture capital firm located in Boston, announced the launch of a new startup company with the sole purpose of treating hearing loss. The new company, Decibel Therapeutics, raised $52 million dollars in Series A funding for its launch, with investment from Third Rock Ventures and SR One—the venture capital arm of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline.{{1}}[[1]]GlaxoSmithKline is the world’s sixth-largest

STAEFA, SWITZERLAND — Major hearing instrument manufacturer Sonova, during its 2015 Investor and Analyst Day at its international headquarters in Switzerland, has confirmed that it will  incorporate 2.4GHz wireless connectivity, with a new chip, in its next generation of hearing instruments. The new chip will use the standard protocol, rather than the current 2.4GHz system used in conjunction with Phonak’s Roger Pen. The

WINNIPEG, MANITOBA — the Canadian province of Manitoba has announced that it will expand newborn hearing screening to all babies born in the province. The announcement comes a year after a study indicated “serious shortcomings” in the country’s newborn hearing screening protocol, with only two locations in the entire province of Manitoba currently conducting the screenings.{{1}}[[1]]See David Kirkwood’s 2014 post: Canada’s

Gael Hannan’s new book, The Way I Hear It, was featured in a review this week at the Huffington Post on September 29th by writer Kristen Hansen Brakeman. Brakeman, whose work has been featured in the New York Times and the Washington Post, praised Hannan’s “humor and clarity” in her writing about what it’s like to live with a hearing loss.

WASHINGTON, DC — Despite being slowed in the US House of Representatives earlier this summer, the so-called Fit to Serve legislation–supported by the International Hearing Society (IHS)–is advancing in the US Senate this week. According to IHS, the Senate VA Committee will be holding a hearing on the bill this Wednesday. Passage of the Veteran’s Access to Hearing Health Act of 2015

LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY — the Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA), in an announcement late last month, have asked the Department of Labor (DOL) to rescind its approval of the IHS-backed Hearing Aid Specialist Apprenticeship program. ADA Firm in Opposition While it’s no surprise that ADA announced opposition to the Fit to Serve initiative, joining with other major audiology organizations who have come out in

WASHINGTON, DC – the US Justice Department announced that it has entered into an agreement with Arrowhead Regional Medical Center (ARMC) of Colton, California. The voluntary compliance agreement was reached to help resolve allegations that the hospital was in violation of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by not providing qualified interpreters and other services to deaf and hard of hearing

VALENCIA, CALIFORNIA – Advanced Bionics has announced that FDA approval has been received for two new cochlear implant sound processors, the Naida CI Q30 and Q90 processors. The company also announced that a new version of its SoundWave fitting software, version 2.3, also received approval from the FDA. A member of the Sonova Group since 2010, Advanced Bionics (AB) has touted the

Editor’s Note: this evolving story was last updated on 8/24/2015 COPENHAGEN, DENMARK – another strong quarter posted by GN ReSound was overshadowed last week by news that serious accounting fraud had been committed by GN’s retail arm, Beltone. In its Q2 Interim Report, GN reported a one-time loss of more than $22 million dollars (DKK $150 million) in the second

BETHESDA, MARYLAND — the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA) expressed their outrage last week following the publication of a new study by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) on the prevalence of disability in the US. The study published by the CDC last month, Prevalence of Disability and Disability Type Among Adults, US, 2013, evaluated vision loss, cognition, mobility, self-care and