Hearing News Watch

WASHINGTON, DC—In what has become a biennial tradition, legislation was introduced April 12 in the U.S. House of Representatives that would provide a $500 tax credit per hearing aid purchased for children and for adults age 55 and older.  Tom Latham (R-IA) and Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY) introduced H.R. 1479 with 36 original co-sponsors. The bill is unchanged from the bill

AMSTERDAM—In case there weren’t enough acronyms in the hearing aid industry, ExSilent , a Dutch company, has introduced a new style of BTE it calls the MaRiC™. The Ytango, which made its U.S. debut last week at the American Academy of Audiology Convention in Chicago, is described as the world’s first BTE that has both the microphone and receiver in

AUDIOLOGISTS WIN MAULDIN AWARDS CHICAGO-Beltone Electronics awarded the Larry Mauldin Award for Excellence in Education to Dr. Joseph Smaldino and Dr. Juliëtte Sterkens at AudiologyNOW! 2111, held here April 6-9. Mauldin Award honorees are nominated and selected by their industry peers. “Beltone is proud to present this award to Dr. Sterkens and Dr. Smaldino,” said Todd Murray, president of Beltone North

Hearing News for Consumers TENNESSEE MOVES TO COVER HEARING AIDS FOR KIDS NASHVILLE—The Tennessee House of Representatives has approved legislation that would require insurance companies to cover hearing aids in their policies for individuals up to 18 years of age. The measure passed 82-12. The State Senate is considering a similar law. Under the proposal, insurance companies would be required

NEW TEST SEEKS OUT COCHLEAR DEAD ZONES LONDON–A new project funded by Deafness Research UK <www.deafnessresearch.org.uk> is seeking to improve understanding of why hearing aids don’t work for everyone as well as they should. The project is seeks ways to identify dead regions of the cochlea where amplification does not improve hearing and can even make it worse. Current hearing

SAN ANTONIO, TX—H. Gustav “Gus” Mueller, PhD, has joined AudiologyOnline as contributing editor. In this role, Dr. Mueller will manage a new monthly feature entitled “20Q with Gus Mueller” that will examine the latest topics in audiology and hearing science with other leading experts in the field.   Before joining AudiologyOnline, Mueller served as contributing editor of The Hearing Journal

WASHINGTON, DC–People with chronic kidney disease (CKD) are urged to take the Across America Hearing Check Challenge, a free, quick, and confidential online hearing test, at www.hearingcheck.org. The non-profit Better Hearing Institute (BHI) is offering the test to raise awareness of the link between chronic kidney disease and hearing loss. The online test will help people determine if they need

STAFA, SWITZERLAND—The hearing aid industry was rocked by the unexpected resignations of the three top executives of the Sonova Group, the world’s largest manufacturer of hearing aids. Sonova, parent company of Phonak, Unitron, and Lyric, announced on March 30 that Valentin Chapero, the CEO, and Oliver Walker, the CEO, had tendered their resignations, and that Andy Rihs would step down

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ST. LOUIS–Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that administering low doses of “a cocktail” of drugs to mice before they are exposed to loud noise reduces their hearing loss when given. The drugs, all FDA-approved for other conditions, did not totally prevent hearing loss in mice following sustained exposure to noise at 110 dB.