Angela Loavenbruck

Seven months have gone by since the publication of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) report on the ways that technology can help individuals with mild to moderate hearing loss. PCAST The PCAST report seemed to be the start of a series of activities designed to change the delivery of hearing health products. The report started

From Angela Loavenbruck, the Crabby Audiologist: One of the reasons I love Facebook is that, in addition to its perverse ability to enable one of the all time great procrastinators, it makes it easier to run into people you haven’t seen for a very long time.  I recently became reacquainted with a young man whom I first met years ago

  “Who am I then? Tell me that first, and then, if I like being that person, I’ll come up: if not, I’ll stay down here till I’m somebody else.” ― Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland I’ve just returned from the 2016 AAA conference in Phoenix. As usual, the days and evenings were a whirlwind of greeting old friends,

I had a wonderful English teacher at Scranton Central High School. Her name was Muriel Stromberg and she had a Mamie Eisenhower haircut. I realized as I was writing this that probably no one reading this column would have any idea what a Mamie Eisenhower haircut was, so I’ve provided a photo. I don’t remember a lot about Mrs. Stromberg’s class

In my last entry, I examined the mythical elephant PCAST created in its examination of the hearing healthcare system. The creature seemed to be purely product – no professional services needed – and closely resembled the vision of the Consumer Electronics Association and PSAP manufacturers. In many ways, the PCAST report is the epitome of the commoditization of hearing healthcare.

Angela Loavenbruck, Ed.D. We all know the story of the blind men and the elephant. There are many versions of the story, and different religions have used it to illustrate various concepts. The basics are the same. An elephant comes into a village and some number of blind men decide they want to know what an elephant is like. Each

The Report… I finally forced myself to read the PCAST report on assistive hearing devices that was released last week.  Given how grumpy I was about the video summary of the study which I discussed in my last column, I knew it was going to be a difficult read – and I was right.  It’s hard to know where to begin

Angela Loavenbruck, Ed.D. Prepare yourself for a really, really grumpy post. First of all the Yankees left the bases loaded far too often, thus considerably dampening my happiness that the Boston Red Sox were fighting for last place and secondly, I have just read a lot of the literature on PSAPS. And then I listened to a webcast presentation by

In the last several months, I’ve had the opportunity to discuss clinical practice policies of a number of audiology practice sites with both audiologists and AuD students. I’ve also had several conversations with various private practice offices as I attempted to find an appropriate office to which I could refer patients moving away from my practice area. Among other questions,

By Angela Loavenbruck, Ed.D. Trying to understand the various contributors to the commoditization of audiology practice has led me in a number of different directions. Most recently I interviewed a number of AuD students about their academic and rotation experiences with private practice. This week, after publication of the 2015 US News and World Report Best Hospitals edition, I wanted