Hearing News Watch

BUSHRIDGE, MPUMALANGA, SOUTH AFRICA–Sir Richard Branson, founder of Virgin Airways, teamed up with the Starkey Hearing Foundation recently to provide 490 hearing-impaired children and adults with hearing aids. The one-day mission took place at Branson’s Bhubezi Health Clinic in Bushridge, South Africa. Bhubezi Clinic is a one-stop center established by Branson’s Virgin United to provide basic healthcare, TB, and HIV/AIDS

BABOL, IRAN–An Iranian scientist has built a tiny capacitor microphone too small to be seen by the naked eye, according to the Iranian Students’ News Agency. The microphone, developed by Bahram Azizollah Ganji, a faculty member at Noshirvani University in the northern Iranian city of Babol, could be used in building small and invisible hearing aids. The device, which is

BOSTON–It’s no secret that listening too long and too loud to heavy metal bands like Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and Black Sabbath will do bad things to your ears. However, a recent paper has implicated another sort of heavy metal in hearing loss among U.S. adolescents. Writing in Archives of Otolaryngolology–Head & Neck Surgery, Josef Shargorodsky, MD, MPH, a researcher

MELBOURNE—Cochlear, the dominant company in the cochlear implant industry, announced this week that it has discovered what was causing about 2% of its Nucleus C1500 units products to fail. Those failures led the Australian-based company to voluntarily recall the whole Nuclear line in September. Cochlear notified clinics that handle its devices that a fault in the manufacturing process had caused

Here’s a quick look at some hearing-related news from beyond the U.S. borders. The first comes from our northern neighbor: Tips for hearing-friendly holiday gatherings VICTORIA, BC—With gatherings of families and friends being planned for much of the world during the upcoming Christmas holiday season, those with hearing loss are at risk of being left out of the joy and

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO–Westone Laboratories, Inc., a leading manufacturer of hearing aid earmolds, hearing protection devices, and related products, has sold a controlling interest in the company to CID Capital, an Indianapolis-based private equity firm. The terms of the purchase, which took place on December 1, were not announced. Founded in 1959 by Ronald and Mickey Morgan in the kitchen of

TUCSON, AZ—Hearinghealthmatters.org has named C. Scot Frink, a prominent audiologist and hearing instrument specialist, as its newest contributing editor. Last month, he was selected by Rayovac as National Hearing Professional of the Year for 2011. Scot, who is president of Salem Audiology Clinic, grew up in hearing care. His father, Norman Frint, was one of the first dispensing audiologists in

STÄFA, SWITZERLAND—More than four out of five hearing aid wearers in the U.S. said they enjoyed an increased quality of life because of their devices, according to “Hearing Is Living,” an international study commissioned by Hear the World. The findings, said a December 7 statement accompanying the release of the initial data, “debunk common myth around hearing loss and hearing aids.”

Tinnitus, a distressing  condition that commonly accompanies hearing loss, is the subject of a new e-Guide for consumers published by the Better Hearing Institute (BHI). Written by Richard Tyler, PhD, one of the world’s leading authorities on tinnitus, Your Guide to Tinnitus is available to consumers and to hearing professionals who want to share it with their patients. Just click

NAERUM, DK— The Ida Institute has created a counseling tool to help clinicians view the hearing rehabilitation process through the eyes of a pediatric patient. In so doing, My World: Understanding Hearing Loss from the Child’s Perspective is expected to enable practitioners to better address the challenges that children with hearing loss face in their day-to-day interactions. This latest addition