Hearing News Watch

BOSTON—The American Academy of Audiology (AAA) came up with a perfect match between venue and topic for its 2012 Academy Research Conference. The conference will be held March 28 in Boston, a day before the start of AudiologyNOW 2012. And the subject will be noise-induced hearing loss. Why are Boston and NIHL such a perfect combination? Because Boston boasts of–or

INDIANAPOLIS—Indiana’s law licensing hearing aid dispensers dodged a bullet last week when a bill that would have deregulated dispensers and several other occupations was withdrawn. The proposed law would have eliminated a number of state boards, including not only the Committee of Indiana Hearing Aid Dealers, but also agencies regulating dietitians, cosmetologists, barbers security guards, and private investigators. Financially strapped

HOUSTON—Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital and Cord Blood Registry® (CBR) will undertake the first FDA-approved, Phase I safety study on the use of cord blood to restore hearing in babies who have sustained hearing loss post-natally. The year-long study, which will involve 10 patients, ages 6 weeks to 18 months, will use stem cells taken from each child’s own stored umbilical

WASHINGTON–A class action lawsuit filed on January 18 charges Siemens Hearing Instruments, Inc., with engaging in a fraudulent scheme to drive down the price of HearUSA common stock in an attempt to acquire the assets of the Florida-based network of hearing care practices for less than their fair market value. The action was brought by the Washington-based law firm Hausfeld

COPENHAGEN—GN Store Nord A/S, parent company of ReSound, will receive a payoff of approximately $530 million, as its share in a settlement reached between Polish Telekomunikacja Polska SA (TPSA) and the Danish consortium DPTG, in which GN holds a 75% interest. TPSA’s payment will resolve a decade-long dispute over revenues from the Polish telecommunications company’s fiber-optic transmission system The announcement

WHEAT RIDGE, CO–Hardly a week goes by, it seems, that another personal sound amplification product, or PSAP, isn’t introduced as an affordable solution to failing ears. Among the next to debut will be the Personal Sound AMP from Able Planet, which is scheduled to launch in March. Priced at $800 a pair, the device is not called a hearing aid,

Jane R. Madell, PhD, one of America’s pre-eminent pediatric audiologists, has joined Hearinghealthmatters.org. She will edit and write a blog on issues related to children and hearing. Dr. Madell is director of Pediatric Audiology Consulting in New York City. Formerly the director of the Hearing and Learning Center and co-director of the Cochlear Implant Center at The Ear Institute, New

Dennis Van Vliet, AuD, whose award-winning monthly column, The Final Word, has appeared in The Hearing Journal (HJ) since 1996, is moving to The Hearing Review (HR). His first column at HR will appear in the May issue, according to an announcement by that publication. Van Vliet, who for many years owned and operated a private practice in California, is

MUMBAI, INDIA—Field trials are under way in India of a hearing aid that will cost less than 3000 rupees–under $60 U.S.–to manufacture. In an interview with the news agency Press Trust of India, Ajay Kumar, an official at the Department of Information Technology, said that the Mumbai-based Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has developed programmable devices that will

LAS VEGAS—Three hearing care products were honored by the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which is being held in Las Vegas this week. The miniTek® wireless remote streamer for hearing instruments from Siemens Hearing Instruments, Inc., received both the Best of CES and the Fan Favorite Awards in the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG). Among the 10 finalists, miniTek was recognized