Hearing News Watch

SHEFFIELD, UK—Rockers with tinnitus will team up on an album to help the British Tinnitus Association  raise awareness of tinnitus, a sometimes-tormenting condition that is especially prevalent among musicians. Coldplay and the Black Eyed Peas are among the internationally popular bands that will perform on the album, which is being produced in partnership with Eddy Temple-Morris, a British DJ, record producer,

GAINESVILLE, FL—Hearing scientists have learned much of value about hearing, hearing loss, and its causes and treatments by conducting research experiments on laboratory animals. However, no matter how promising a procedure or drug seems to be in animal studies, at some point before a new treatment is made available to the public, researchers must find out if what worked on

NEW ORLEANS—Super Bowl weekend in New Orleans was a banner occasion for hearing care foundations as well as for football fans. On February 2, the day before the Baltimore Ravens upset the San Francisco Forty-Niners, Starkey Hearing Foundation conducted a mission where nearly 300 people received free custom hearing aids. As reported here last week, last Saturday was also the

By David H. Kirkwood SYRACUSE, NY—The HearStrong Foundation was launched nationwide last week with an ambitious mission: to connect with and empower the 80% of those whose hearing loss has not been treated to take control of their hearing health. Ed Keller, president of the HearStrong Foundation, said its guiding principle is “Change the message, change the world.” Keller, who is

WASHINGTON, DC–Senator Tom Harkin (D, IA), perhaps the U.S. Senate’s leading champion of people with hearing loss, announced on January 26 that he will not seek re-election when his fifth term expires at the end of 2014. Harkin, who is 73 and has been in the Senate since 1985, cited his age in explaining his decision. Harkin became deeply involved

PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA—When the Special Olympics Winter Games open here on Tuesday, January 29, many of the 2100 competitors from over 100 nations will be wearing hearing aids provided to them free by the Hear the World Foundation. Almost a quarter of the athletes who participate in the Special Olympics have hearing loss. However, a great many of them do

BALTIMORE–A study that followed nearly 2000 older Americans for more than a decade found that those with hearing loss had 30%-40% greater annual declines on measures of cognitive function than did those whose hearing was normal. Senior author Frank R. Lin, MD, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and nine other scientists reported their findings

CINCINNATI—For nearly a decade, Ohio has screened all newborn babies for hearing loss. As a result, twice as many infants are having their hearing impairments identified soon after birth as was the case pre-universal screening. That has provided audiologists with an opportunity to address hearing losses very early, at a time when hearing aids or other technology is most likely

CENTENNIAL, CO—Eight college students who use implantable technology to overcome hearing loss will receive $2000-a-year scholarships from Cochlear Americas for up to four years at an accredited college or university. Cochlear Americas is the North American division of Cochlear Limited, the Australian company that is the world’s largest manufacturer of cochlear implants. Five students were selected as winners of the

By David H. Kirkwood BOSTON—When scientists finally discover a cure for sensorineural hearing loss, the key that unlocks the door for them will probably be some mechanism to stimulate the regeneration of sensory hair cells in the human cochlea. The toll that age, noise, ototoxic medicines, and infections take on these hair cells is the most common cause of hearing