Hearing News Watch

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

For decades, manufacturers and retailers have been promoting ear candles as an effective way to remove cerumen from the ear canal. This alternative medicine practice involves lighting one end of a hollow candle and placing the other end in the ear. Proponents say that the flame creates negative pressure, which sucks the heat-softened wax and other debris out of the

Buoyed by a relatively strong fourth quarter, the U.S. hearing aid market ended 2011 with an increase in unit sales of 2.96% over 2010, according to the latest quarterly statistical report from the Hearing Industries Association (HIA). The 2,766,301 hearing aids sold last year by manufacturers to hearing care professionals marked the highest annual total ever, 79,349 more than the