Wayne's World

This blog is part of a continuing series providing background about the role of audiologists in the hearing aid industry, specifically at the manufacturing level.  The series focuses on those audiologists who were with manufacturers long enough to make substantial contributions to the positions that audiologists enjoy today as hearing aid manufacturer representatives.  The stories highlight the conflicts between theory

This is a third part of the history of audiology pioneers in hearing aid manufacturing and features recollections by Terry Griffing, one of the pioneers.  The first two parts featured history as recalled by Robert Briskey and Richard Scott.   Terry Griffing I started my career as a clinical audiologist at the Mayo Clinic at Rochester, Minnesota in 1960. As

This is a second part of the history of audiology pioneers in hearing aid manufacturing and features recollections by Richard Scott, one of the pioneers.  The first part featured history as recalled by Robert Briskey, M.A.  Following Briskey’s historical recollections, I had a note from Larry Mathieu who mentioned that he was a part of the Audiology Study Group that

Featuring Robert Briskey, M.A., following this Introduction.  Introduction I was told recently that one of the major hearing aid manufacturers had over 300 audiologists working for them. How many audiologists are currently working throughout the industry for manufacturers would only be an estimate – and most likely not very accurate. Regardless, such a position for audiologists today is commonplace, and

Note:  This is a continuation of a previous blog: Hearing Aid Verification Using Functional Gain – Part I, which was last week’s blog.   Functional Gain in Hearing Aids   Functional Gain (FG) = Aided Threshold minus the Unaided Threshold (FG = A-U). Unaided thresholds are measured to tones presented through the loudspeaker(s). Various frequencies are tested and the stimuli

A University teaching faculty member asked me recently if I would write a review about the use of functional gain as a method for hearing aid verification. My initial reactions were that I thought we were beyond this with real-ear measurements, and then, that this might be as exciting as watching grass grow, not only for me, but for the

In my last blog I posted a list of predictions for the hearing aid industry that I had made in 2005, for the next 10 years. Prediction # 4 was: Hearing aids will become multi-function devices having applications beyond primarily amplification – and driven by the mobile telephone, which will become the nerve center for most communication. In fact, the telephone

I may be no genius, but at times I’m close….. Einstein and Dr. Staab, Antalya, Turkey. The other day, while digging through some of my files, I came across a presentation on my predictions for the hearing aid industry 10 years from the year 2005. This was related to an invited presentation I was asked to give to the American

This is a continuation of the previous blog with the same name, but labeled Part I. The setting is the Hurricane Mesa Test Facility (HMTF) located atop Hurricane Mesa, a short drive from St. George, UT. HMTF has a 12,000 ft. test track that is fully capable of handling propulsion velocities exceeding supersonic. It is used mostly to test aircraft

A few days ago I accompanied a couple of jeeping friends, Jim Beller and Paul Furr of St. George, UT to the Hurricane Mesa Test Track (HMTT) Facility a few miles from where we live.  It is currently owned and operated by Goodrich Corporation, Universal Propulsion Company, but was started in the mid 1950s by the US Air Force. Located