Hearing News Watch

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

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

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

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

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

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

  NEW YORK–If anyone can make hearing aids cool for little boys, it’s got to be a Marvel superhero. That’s why Phonak, a major hearing aid manufacturer, has teamed up with Marvel to create the poster shown above. Written by Marvel’s Christos Gage and drawn by Paco Medina, the poster shown above depicts Iron Man, one of the world’s most

By David H. Kirkwood ERLANGEN, GERMANY—More than three years after Siemens tried to sell its hearing aid division but failed to attract an acceptable bid, reports on The Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch web site and elsewhere online say that the German industrial giant is planning to try again later this year. The reports cite unnamed informed sources. Siemens has declined

Factory workers, soldiers, miners, and bartenders are among those whose jobs often put them at risk of hearing loss. Now you can add sports referees to the list of potentially ear-unfriendly occupations. So report two audiologists, Gregory Flamme and Nathan Williams, in a study published last month in The Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene and also written about in

SOMERSET, NJ—Readers of this blog and anyone else who cares about hearing health are invited to help select the winners in the 2013 Focus on People Awards program, sponsored by Oticon, Inc., a major hearing aid manufacturer. From today, February 26, through March 31, the polls will be open at Oticon’s web site. There, voters will find information about the