Hearing Views

By Fred Cohen HearingHealthMatters.org has published several posts on the Hearing News Watch blog in recent months discussing various aspects of accommodating hearing-impaired patrons of movie theaters. (See posts from April 5, 2012; May 2, 2012 ; and July 24, 2012. ) None of these focused on litigation in the area and there was no occasion to describe how a

By Peter G. Jacobs and Gabrielle H. Saunders According to a report from the World Health Organization, only 10% of the almost 300 million people worldwide who are estimated to have moderate-to-profound hearing impairment use hearing aids or other assistive technology. The statistics are even worse in developing countries where fewer than 1 in 40 people {{1}}[[1]]World Health Organization, 2012[[1]] with

It was 25 years ago this month that 32 audiologists convened in Houston for the founding meeting of the American Academy of Audiology. To commemorate that historic occasion, I invited James Jerger, the man who organized and hosted the meeting and who served as the first president of the Academy, to write a Hearing View reflecting on the first quarter

By David H. Kirkwood I don’t know how many of our readers check out the Media Room at HearingHealthMatters.org, but if you’re interested in personal glimpses of our editors it’s the place to go.  If you visited the Media Room last year, you might have run across a brief write-up on one of our oldest readers and, without question, my

By Brian Taylor I was driving through my neighborhood the other day and noticed that several cameras had been installed on the stoplights near busy intersections. In addition to the new cameras, two new speed limit signs were equipped with flashing lights that are triggered when approaching vehicles exceed the 35 mph speed limit. There’s nothing terribly ominous about the

A couple of weeks ago when I was attending the International Hearing Society Convention, I heard from a reliable source that William Demant, the parent company of Oticon among other hearing care companies, had recently purchased MedRx. Founded in 1994, this Florida-based company has grown into a leading manufacturer of hearing care testing and fitting equipment. It’s especially known for

By K. Ray Katz We “old timers” occasionally look back on our younger years thinking how good things used to be: less crime, fewer worries, and a lot less that we had to know to do the best we could with what our suppliers were able to produce to help our hard-of-hearing patients. It is nothing less than amazing that

By David H. Kirkwood People who know me probably wonder why I would ask such a tendentious question. After all, my father, who was born and raised in Ontario, remained a Canadian for most of my childhood years. And, except for my mother and brother, all my Kirkwood relatives still live on the northern side of the border. I also

By David H. Kirkwood This is the time of year when our mailboxes overflow with urgent pleas for donations from every good cause we’ve ever contributed to. And, for every non-profit organization that we’ve helped in the past, we probably hear from half a dozen other charitable groups that have identified us as good candidates to send money for their

By Ted Venema In the beginning was Functional Gain. Real-Ear measures did not exist. All hearing aids were Linear. Sam Lybarger, whose inventions revolutionized hearing care in the 20th century, stood a Texas yard from the listener who wore the hearing aid, spoke in a normal conversational voice, and asked what sounded comfortably loud. He found the listener wanted gain