Hearing News Watch

CAMBRIDGE, MA—As long as people have been using hearing aids, replacing the batteries has been part of the drill. However, someday—though no time soon—people may power their own hearing devices, at least implantable ones. How can that be? Well, people and other mammals have a natural battery located inside the cochlea. It’s a chamber filled with ions that produce electricity

PORTLAND, OR–As readers will undoubtedly recall, a few months ago HearingHealthMatters.org joined about 50,000 other print, broadcast, and online media around the world in writing about the most reported—really over-reported—story of 2012 related to hearing. What was it? The $9.32 million lawsuit brought by a concertgoer against the 18-year-old pop star Justin Bieber. The plaintiff, Stacey Wilson Betts, of Wilsonville,

LONDON—The Hear the World Foundation has set a Guinness World Record for staging the world’s largest photographic awareness campaign. Since 2006 when Sonova, parent company of the world’s largest hearing aid manufacturing group, created the foundation, scores of international celebrities have served as ambassadors. Each has been photographed in the campaign’s signature pose—with a hand cupped behind one ear–symbolizing conscious hearing.

SAN DIEGO–Robert L. Martin, PhD, whose lively, down-to-earth articles have been informing, encouraging, and entertaining hearing care professionals for nearly a quarter-century, has joined HearingHealthMatters.org. Starting today (November 28), Bob Martin will be writing a bi-weekly post on theHearing Health blog, where he will be co-editor with Judy Huch, AuD. From 1989 through this year, Dr. Martin’s Nuts & Bolts column

MANCHESTER, UK–Douglas Beck, AuD, a prominent American audiologist, received the 2012 Jos Millar Shield from the British Academy of Audiology (BAA). The long-standing award is presented annually to the person who has submitted the best article for a BAA publication in the previous year. Beck won for his article “What – I Didn’t Know That!,” which was published in the

HARRISONBURG, VA–Andrea Liuzzo, a doctor of audiology student at James Madison University (JMU), is the 2012 recipient of the Roger Ruth Memorial Fund Student Research Award. It was presented to her at a special ceremony last month at the Ruth Symposium. The award was created in 2009 in memory of Dr. Roger Ruth, PhD, for his tireless efforts to promote

RESTON, VA—A study commissioned by the American Academy of Audiology (AAA) has found that giving Medicare beneficiaries direct access to audiologists would save Medicare about $240 million over 10 years. In a message e-mailed to AAA members on November 7, Deborah L. Carlson, PhD, president of the academy said, “This compelling and comprehensive study shows what the academy has purported

By Fred Cohen MONROE, LA–An employment discrimination case brought by Wanda Smith, a lien release processor with J.P. Morgan Chase, Smith claimed that even using prescriptive hearing aids she still does not hear at the level of a typical adult. She was fired by Chase for failing to meet a productivity benchmark of 13.34 lien releases processed per hour. Chase

WATERTOWN, MA—A web site has been created to give people with both hearing and vision loss access to technology that can connect them with deaf-blind people around the world. iCanConnect.org offers a wealth of advanced communications technology, including video that is both audio-described and closed-captioned, screen-enlargement software, and videophones. The new web site is part of the iCanConnect campaign mission designed

PHOENIX—The Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA) unveiled a new campaign last week during its annual meeting that will advocate for changes in the Social Security Act (SSA) to improve audiologic care for Medicare beneficiaries. Among its objectives is to finally achieve audiology’s unfulfilled goal of providing Medicare patients with direct access to audiologic treatment. In announcing the plan at