Hearing News Watch

Apr. 02, 2013

Jacob’s Ride to raises awareness of hearing loss and $1 million to help those who have it

David Kirkwood
WASHINGTON, DC—For a baseball fan like Jacob Landis, opening week of the season is always a big deal. But this year will be extra-special, as the 24-year-old pizza baker from Annapolis, MD, will be part of the action. Starting tomorrow, April 3, at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C., Landis will set off on a nearly 6-month, 10,000-mile bicycle odyssey that
Apr. 01, 2013

Phonak awards $25,000 to winner of its Healthy Hearing contest

David Kirkwood
  SEATTLE—Two people who have overcome hearing loss have been brought together by their commitment to helping others to do the same. One of these is Paige Stringer, founder and executive director of the Seattle-based Global Foundation for Children with Hearing Loss. She was announced last week as winner of the Phonak Healthy Hearing Contest. Born profoundly hard of hearing, Stringer
Mar. 27, 2013

American Academy of Audiology prepares to hold its 25th Annual Convention

David Kirkwood
ANAHEIM, CA—Many thousands of audiologists, audiology students, and exhibitors will congregate here next week in this Orange County city best known as the home of Disneyland. It’s not Mickey Mouse or Frontierland that is drawing them, but rather AudiologyNOW! 2013, which is also the American Academy of Audiology’s 25th Annual Convention. Every year, AudiologyNOW! is the world’s largest gathering of
Mar. 26, 2013

After a long wait, 3D ear scanning technology wins FDA approval

David Kirkwood
CAMBRIDGE, MA—About a year ago, Lantos Technologies Inc. of Cambridge crossed the Charles River to introduce its much-heralded 3D Intra-Aural Digital Scanner at the Hearing Solutions exhibition of the American Academy of Audiology Convention in Boston. The company said that its scanner used patented dual-wavelength algorithm technology that provided “the first platform capable of measuring direct ear scans as well
Mar. 20, 2013

IHS says hearing aid specialists are “fit to serve” nation’s veterans

David Kirkwood
By David H. Kirkwood WASHINGTON, DC–Contending that the increasing number of U.S. veterans with hearing problems has outstripped the ability of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to meet their needs effectively, the International Hearing society (IHS) has launched a campaign to make hearing aid specialists eligible to provide to veterans with hearing evaluations and hearing aid services. Under current
Mar. 17, 2013

Utah program would pay for kids’ hearing aids

David Kirkwood
SALT LAKE CITY—The Utah Legislature stands on the verge of making hearing aids available free to low-income children in that state who do not qualify for Medicaid or for the Utah Children’s Health Insurance Program. On March 13, the Senate voted unanimously to establish an advisory committee in the Utah Department of Health that would be responsible for screening individuals
Mar. 13, 2013

Occupational hearing loss poses a growing crisis for China

David Kirkwood
BEIJING–As was reported on this blog last week, WHO (the World Health Organization) estimates that there are 360 million people in the world with disabling hearing loss. Undoubtedly, a large percentage of them are in China, whose population of 1.35 billion is the largest of any nation and nearly a fifth of the entire human population. What’s more, the rate
Mar. 12, 2013

At meeting in Arizona, AAS marks 40 years of advancing auditory science

David Kirkwood
SCOTTSDALE, AZ—The American Auditory Society (AAS) held its 40th annual Scientific and Technology Meeting here March 7-9. Since its founding in 1973, AAS has pursued the goal of increasing knowledge and understanding of the ear, hearing, and balance; disorders of the ear, hearing, and balance, and preventions of these disorders; and habilitation and rehabilitation of individuals with hearing and balance
Mar. 11, 2013

AAA members choose Erin Miller as president-elect; elect four directors

David Kirkwood
RESTON, VA—Erin L. Miller, AuD, the coordinator of the Northeast Ohio AuD Consortium, will become president-elect of the American Academy of Audiology (AAA) on July 1, succeeding Bettie Borton, AuD, the current president-elect who will take over the presidency on that date from Deborah Carlson, PhD. Miller and four AAA directors were elected by the academy’s membership in voting that
Mar. 06, 2013

360 million have disabling hearing loss, but WHO says it need not be that way

David Kirkwood
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND–More than 360 million people, about 5% of the world’s population, have disabling hearing loss, according to estimates released by WHO (the World Health Organization) just in time for International Ear Care Day on March 3. That number is more than the total population of the United States or of any other country except for China and India. Even