Hearing News Watch

OWINGS MILLS, MD—Craig W. Johnson, a pioneering audiologist who founded and ran the first private audiology practice in Maryland and then became a leading advocate for his profession, died on October 9. A native of Baltimore, Johnson was one of the few audiologists ever to simultaneously hold leadership positions with two major professional audiology organizations. He served on the board

  By David H. Kirkwood BLACKSBURG, VA—The answer to that question is decidedly yes, very far behind. To be sure, behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids, which were the dominant style in the U.S. in the 1960s and then dwindled to less than 20% of the market in the early 1990s, did launch a dramatic comeback over the past decade and now

PORTLAND, OR—When people are fitted with hearing aids, they often face difficulty in obtaining the maximum benefit from them. That’s why the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), which fits more than half a million hearing aids a year on U.S. military veterans, is sponsoring a 2-year pilot study to explore if certain tools and techniques can help patients make the

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND—We’ve all heard PA announcements that sound something like this:  “ONNAWAWA Airlines Flight seven-WAWAWA-ty-four will depart from Gate sixty GAWAGWA at WAWAWA forty-five.” Or, “This subway train has been delayed because of WAWAOMOMONWA.  Passengers should not ONHONHOHN until WAWAWA. Thank you for your patience.” But now, according to a report from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, scientists there

BOSTON—It’s long been known that transitory hearing loss in childhood can have permanent effects on a child’s development. The temporary conductive hearing problems that so many children suffer due to ear infections may interfere with their ability to learn and develop communication skills, with results that often continue long after the hearing loss has ended. However, recent research with animal

By David H. Kirkwood For reasons that are difficult to fathom, news of a research study showing that French horn players are the classical musicians most likely to suffer from noise-induces hearing loss has gone viral. All over the media, from NPR to Classic FM, from US News & World Report and the Huffington Post to iNOOZ, this news is

WASHINGTON, DC—Andy Bopp has been promoted to the position of executive director of the Hearing Industries Association (HIA). Carole Rogin, who will remain president of HIA, said that Bopp, who has been director of government relations for the past decade, will assume responsibility for HIA’s regulatory and statistical programs and other special member initiatives. In announcing the appointment, Rogin said,

COPENHAGEN—The latest development in a continuing trend in the hearing aid industry toward manufacturer control of the retail sector took place today (October 1) when GN Store Nord A/S acquired a major Danish hearing aid dispensing network, Dansk Hørecenter. GN, owner of GN ReSound, made the purchase through its Beltone subsidiary. The price was not disclosed. According to GN’s announcement,

  ROCKVILLE, MD—The American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has launched a nationwide campaign to raise awareness of the early warning signs of speech, language, and hearing issues. The initiative, dubbed Identify the Signs, was inspired by a survey of ASHA members that found that public lack of awareness of the signs of communications problems is the number one barrier to early

NEW YORK—Three pioneering scientists who led the way to developing the cochlear implant received the prestigious Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award at ceremonies held here on September 20. The 2013 honorees are Graeme M. Clark, Ingeborg Hochmair, and Blake S. Wilson, whose work contributed so much to enabling profoundly deaf people to hear. In announcing the award winners, the Albert