Hearing News Watch

LONDON–Autifony Therapeutics, a British startup biotech company, has launched a Phase 1 trial of an experimental drug, AUT00063, that is designed to treat age-related hearing loss and tinnitus by targeting deficits in auditory processing in the brain that are believed to cause these problems. Charles Large, PhD, co-founder and chief scientific officer of Autifony, noted, “We are delighted by the progress

By David H. Kirkwood BETHESDA, MD—Back in the late 1990s, few would have believed that advocates for people with hearing loss would ever have a kind word for the wireless phone industry. That was the time that mobile phones were really starting to catch on in the U.S. The bad news, as users and manufacturers of hearing aids were discovering,

    MONTREAL—People are often said to see like an eagle or run like a deer. Maybe some day, those with acute hearing will be said to have ears like an Ormia ochracea. Probably not, but this parasitic fly about the size of a common housefly does have incredibly sensitive directional hearing. That’s why researchers have been inspired by this

   This post was published June 3 and then revised and re-published June 4. CENTENNIAL, CO—The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has approved the Aqua Accessory, Cochlear Americas, the company that makes the device, announced on May 31. Meanwhile, in an unrelated development, Cochlear Americas’ Australian-based parent company, Cochlear, saw its stock plunge by a whopping 18% on June 3, following

BETHESDA, MD–Anna Gilmore Hall, who began her career as a registered nurse and has worked in association management for two decades, will become the next executive director of the Hearing Loss Association of America, the HLAA board of trustees announced on May 22. She will officially assume her duties on July 8, succeeding Brenda Battat, who announced her plans to

COLUMBUS, OH—Reacting to the growing prevalence of direct-to-consumer hearing aid sales, the Ohio House of Representatives is considering legislation that would ban the sale of hearing aids to any Ohio resident who has not received an in-person hearing evaluation at a location within the state. Introduced in March by Rep. Rex Damschroder (R-Fremont), House Bill 109 requires that people who

MINNEAPOLIS–The Hearing Industry Research Consortium (IRC) announced on Monday the recipients of $300,000 in research grants in its initial Request for Proposals (RFP) program. Piers Dawes, PhD, a research fellow at the University of Manchester in the UK, and Andrea Pittman, PhD, associate professor at Arizona State University, will each receive $150,000 to support their research projects, which are aimed

KNOXVILLE, TN–Regal Cinemas, the country’s largest chain of movie houses, has announced that by the end of May it will have distributed caption-displaying Access Glasses for patrons with hearing loss to more than 6000 of its theaters nationwide. When moviegoers use this technology, captions are projected onto the Access Glasses, but the words look as if they are floating about

WASHINGTON, DC—The Better Hearing Institute (BHI) is urging employers to include hearing health as part of their workplace wellness programs. Noting that June will be the fifth annual National Employee Wellness Month, the non-profit educational corporation points out that addressing hearing loss in the workplace is a smart business practice that benefits both employer and employee. To facilitate timely hearing

    By David H. Kirkwood WASHINGTON, DC—Consultants commissioned by the American Academy of Audiology (AAA) calculate that allowing Medicare beneficiaries direct access to care from an audiologist would reduce costs by $173.3 million over the next ten years by eliminating duplicative audiological services and unnecessary evaluation and management services. In its report, “Determining Potential Medicare Savings by Streamlining Beneficiary