Hearing News Watch

Three years ago the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) created a list of the 18 antibiotic-resistant microbes threatening the health of Americans. Given the relatively high prevalence of otitis media in children, which is often treated with antimicrobial drugs, the rise of antibiotic resistance is a cause for concern among healthcare professionals. Antibiotic-resistant infections affect two million people and are

Editor’s Note: Today’s news post comes from Canadian journalist Michelle Leslie who discusses some innovative solutions to address global hearing loss.   Google.org, the charitable arm of the world’s largest search engine, is supporting  World Wide Hearing (WWH) to find a solution to what the World Health Organization (WHO) has described as one of the largest disabilities on the planet. Hearing loss. It affects one-third

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND – Abano Healthcare Group, which is an active investor and operator of healthcare and medical services business across New Zealand, Australia and Asia, has received an unsolicited offer to purchase a 50 percent stake in the audiology company Bay International for nearly three times its estimated value of $11.9 million NZ ($8.1M USD). The proposal was received from

PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA — A new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine has found that a much larger area of the brain is activated when children hear their mother’s voice, compared to when they hear other unfamiliar voices. Beyond the auditory regions, areas of the brain involved in emotion and reward processing, social functions, detection of what is personally relevant and

VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON — Multiple sources report today that GN ReSound has signed a long-term supply agreement with Audigy Group, which includes a contingent agreement to acquire the company. According to Global Newswire, the supply agreement goes into effect as of today. The agreement to acquire Audigy is contingent on approval from the US government anti-trust authorities; other closing conditions were

ONTARIO, CANADA — Due to Canadian law, Guelph, Ontario audiologist Brenda Berge, who obtained her doctorate in audiology from Ball State University in Indiana, is barred from using the prefix “Dr.” before her name. Berge was recently slapped with a three-month suspension and almost $100,000 in costs for using the title by the College of Audiologists and Speech Language Pathologists.

Last week the world caught its first glimpse of Samsung’s new IconX hearable device. The leaked images, but scant details, spread across the tech world like wildfire. It appears that Samsung is ready to go toe-to-toe with Apple if the tech giant decides to make the rumored, but radical, decision to ditch the headphone/audio jack on the next iPhone in

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON — Seattle Children’s anesthesiologist, Dr. Daniel Rubens, has been researching Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) since 2002 and hopes that the launch of his new study will eventually lead to a means of preventing the mysterious condition that results in the death of thousands of seemingly healthy children each year in the US. As reported last year by David Kirkwood at Hearing News Watch, Dr.

Sonova announced on May 4 the acquisition of European behemoth, AudioNova, for € 830 million ($954 million). It is reported to be the largest transaction ever in the hearing aid retail market and makes Sonova-owned retail approximately the same size as retail leader, Amplifon.  Following this acquisition, Sonova will have over 3,300 stores worldwide with over 2,500 locations in Europe.

Cost continues to be one of the key barriers to hearing aid acquisition according to a new report published in the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH). Citing several sources, chief among them a 2011 population-based, longitudinal study that found only one-third of adults with hearing loss acquired hearing aids, Jan Blustein & Barbara Weinstein contrasted the burden of disability