Hearing News Watch

PITTSBURGH-Trailing three games to one in its first round match-up against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the National Hockey League playoffs, the Tampa Bay Lightning will be facing elimination when it takes the ice here Saturday (April 23). If there’s one player on the team suited to help lead Tampa Bay back from the brink, it may be right wing Steve

WASHINGTON, DC–U.S. hearing aid sales increased by 5.0% during the first three months of 2011 over the same period last year, according to data collected from manufacturers by the Hearing Industries Association. The fastest growth was in sales to the Department of Veterans Affairs, which rose by 7.6% over 2010. The 135,725 instruments purchased by the VA represented 19.7% of

SOMERSET, NJ–Do you know a student or adult who has overcome hearing loss to make remarkable accomplishments.  Is there a volunteer in your community who has made an extraordinary effort to serve the needs of those with hearing loss? Do you know of a hearing healthcare professional whose excellence deserves national recognition? If you answered yes to any of these

ANAHEIM, CA–Therese Walden, PhD, who will become president of the American Academy of Audiology on July 1, will be the keynote speaker at the California Academy of Audiology’s 12th Annual Conference September 22-24. Other highlighted speakers will include Kathleen Campbell, PhD, who will update audiologists on the latest findings in ototoxicity, and Laura Dreisbach Hawe, PhD, who will speak on

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