Hearing News Watch

BOSTON—More than a year after the Boston Marathon bombings of April 15, 2013, scores of victims of the terrorist action are still suffering from hearing loss, tinnitus, and other conditions resulting from exposure to the two explosions. So report 15 physicians and audiologists writing in the December 2014 issue of Otology & Neurotology. In the aftermath of the shocking attack

By David H. Kirkwood Marion Downs, the beloved and revered audiologist who largely invented the field of pediatric audiology, died on November 13 in Dana Point, California, 10 months after her 100th birthday. Dr. Downs’s trailblazing work, begun in the early 1960s at the University of Colorado School of Medicine (UC School of Medicine), showed the world that babies with hearing

This updated version of the post published on November 7 includes additional comments about the sale of Siemens from an informed source whom I interviewed this week. My informant asked not to be named because he was not authorized by his company to speak for publication.  David H. Kirkwood, Editor, Hearing News Watch   MUNICH, GERMANY—In the largest transaction in

By David H. Kirkwood WASHINGTON, DC—Responding to a broad-based national campaign by manufacturers, hearing care providers, and consumer advocates, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced on October 31 that it had reversed its position and would not end Medicare coverage of auditory osseointegrated implants (AOIs). As previously reported on this blog, CMS issued a proposed rule in

  GHENT, BELGIUM–Congenital cytomegalovirus (CMV) is the most common non-hereditary cause of hearing loss in children, according to a study by a group of medical researchers at University Hospital in Ghent. Writing in the November 1 issue of the journal Pediatrics, Julie Goderis, MD, and five colleagues said they reached that conclusion after analyzing the findings of 37 articles on

This week, the lead item on Hearing News Watch is a post about the ongoing saga of the sale of Siemens Audiology Solutions. It is written by my blog colleague Holly Hosford-Dunn, PhD, who published it October 24 on Hearing Economics. I thought this timely report would be of interest to Hearing News Watch readers as well.  David H. Kirkwood, Editor,

OSLO–When Malala Yousafzay receives the Nobel Peace Prize in December, the 17-year-old Pakistani girl will be the youngest person ever to receive that high honor or, in fact, a Nobel Prize of any kind. Malala, as she become widely known throughout the world, was selected on October 10 by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, along with Kailash Satyarthi of India, for

  LIVONIA, MI–The Fit to Serve bill, discussed last week in this blog’s update on pending federal legislation related to hearing health, got a big boost recently when Julia Beall-McKelvey, a Pennsylvania hearing aid specialist, donated $15,000 to the International Hearing Society (IHS) advocacy fund for the veteran-oriented initiative. Her contribution, along with others made at IHS’s annual meeting, provided $100,000

ALEXANDRIA, VA—The American Academy of Otolaryngology—Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) Foundation has published an extensive, evidence-based clinical practice guideline to improve the diagnosis and management of tinnitus. The guideline, the first of its kind, appears as a supplement to the October 2014 issue of the journal Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery. Its stated purpose is “to provide evidence-based recommendations for clinicians

NAERUM, DENMARK—Hearing care professionals and students can now take a free online course and gain a practical introduction to the fundamentals of patient-centered Developed by the Ida Institute, a non-profit organization funded by the Oticon Foundation, the Ida Basics Course is designed to encourage reflection on the clinician’s approach to patient care and suggest concepts and methods for improving current