Hearing News Watch

PASADENA, CA—The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit rejected a settlement on August 19 that would have given consumers who suffered hearing loss from using Bluetooth headsets a tiny fraction of the amount that would have been awarded to their lawyers. As reported by Tim Hull, of the Courthouse News Service, the class action combined 26 lawsuits around

GREENFORD, UK—Glaxo Group Limited (GSK) will take a £1,250,000 (about $2 million) equity stake in Autifony Therapeutics Ltd., a new British biotech company spun off from GSK. Under the agreement, announced on August 22, the British subsidiary of the global pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, will own 25.4% of Autifony. In exchange, the Glaxo Group will hand over voltage-gated ion channel modulator

LOS ANGELES—Audiologists, otolaryngologists, audiologists, deaf educators, representatives of industry, and others who care about hearing will gather here September 8-9 for the second Conference of the Coalition for Global Hearing Health. Following up on last year’s conference, attendees will seek consensus on the best practices in global outreach. House Research Institute is hosting the event. The mission of the Coalition

“…Living with hearing loss every day doesn’t necessarily mean we’re good at it. On the contrary, most of us suck at being hard of hearing or deaf! What we do excel at, however, is ignoring our own needs, devising ways to hide our condition, and, worst of all, meekly putting up with inaccessible conditions, simply because we don’t know how to make

NEW YORK–Whoopi Goldberg’s secret is out. Hiding behind those signature dreadlocks are a pair of small hearing aids. So reported The National Enquirer in a recent interview with the Oscar-winning actress (for Ghost) and co-host of The View, the popular weekday television talk show. For those who follow the hearing industry, Whoopi’s hearing aids were no big surprise. At the

COTTAGE GROVE, OR–In the classic 1980 comedy Caddyshack, starring Rodney Dangerfield, Chevy Chase, and Bill Murray, the climax comes when Murray, playing the gopher-obsessed groundskeeper Carl Spackler, turns to heavy explosives to eradicate the pesky rodents. It made for a hilarious scene, but it did not look like a good idea, especially when the explosions destroyed much of the golf

NOTTINGHAM, ENGLAND—Scientists at the University of Nottingham have come up with a promising new way of treating otitis media with effusion (OME), a condition estimated to affect up to 80% of all children at least once. Even when treated, OME often recurs, and it can sometimes cause serious temporary or even hearing loss in those afflicted. In an effort to

CUPERTINO, CA–Apple’s latest operating system for its mobile devices will come with a hearing aid mode designed to improve compatibility between hearing aids and iOS devices such as iPhones, iPads, and iPods, according to MacRumors, an online publication. Version 6 of the iOS 5 beta will also feature a speech-recognition feature, MacRumors says. The updated iOS is expected to launch

HOUSTON–When a child acts out in school or doesn’t pay attention in class, hyperactivity or a learning disability may not be the cause. The actual culprit may be something as simple and treatable as hearing or vision loss. According to an RSS feed from Baylor College of Medicine (BCM), doctors there advise that what appears to be a behavioral issue

By David H. Kirkwood PITTSBURGH—The dispute between the Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA) and the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) escalated August 2 when ADA sued ASHA in U.S. District Court in Pittsburgh. The lawsuit seeks an injunction against ASHA requiring it to correct what ADA charges were “fraudulent statements” made in letters to audiologists and on its web site.