Fit to Serve bill wins support from a leading senator
WASHINGTON, DC—The Fit to Serve campaign, designed to allow and encourage the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to hire licensed hearing aid specialists to treat veterans with hearing loss, got a boost when U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) announced on May 8 that he would sponsor the Veterans Hearing Aid Access and Assistance Act…
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VEST is designed to allow deaf people to feel what speakers are saying
By David H. Kirkwood HOUSTON—David Eagleman, PhD, and his graduate student Scott Novich at Baylor College of Medicine are working alongside a team of engineering undergraduates at Rice University to develop a high-tech garment known as the VEST (Versatile Extra-Sensory Transducer) that would enable people who are deaf in both ears to understand speech…
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Institute of Medicine panel seeks ways to make hearing care more accessible and affordable
By David H. Kirkwood WASHINGTON, DC—As part of an ambitious, two-year study to identify ways to make hearing health care (HHC) for adults more accessible and affordable, a 13-member ad hoc committee of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) will hold a daylong open session on Monday, April 27. IOM, the health arm of the National…
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HHTM Exclusive: Findings from new MarkeTrak study show greater hearing aid use, satisfaction
By David H. Kirkwood WASHINGTON, DC–The portion of Americans with self-reported hearing difficulty who own hearing aids has increased to 30.2% (from 24.8% in 2008), and the satisfaction rate with hearing aids has grown to 81% from 74%, according to the MarkeTrak 9 survey conducted last fall by Az Marketing Research with Online…
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Four audiologists, an engineer, and a neuroscientist are awarded AAA’s highest honors
SAN ANTONIO–The youngest founder of the American Academy of Audiology (AAA), the director of one of the world’s leading acoustical research laboratories, and a researcher whose publications have been cited in the scientific literature more than 1800 times were among those recognized at the Honors and Awards Banquet held March 26 during AudiologyNOW! 2015, the…
Read MoreFrank Musiek, a trailblazer in electrophysiology, to chair Academy Research Conference
Frank E. Musiek, PhD, a renowned expert in electrophysiology and central auditory processing disorders (CAPD) who oversees the Pathways section of the blog Hearing Health & Technology (HHTM), has been selected by the American Academy of Audiology (AAA) to chair the 2016 Academy Research Conference (ARC) to be held in Phoenix on April 12, just…
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ADA and IHS to end separate annual meetings in favor of a Hearing Health Global Summit
By David H. Kirkwood WASHINGTON, DC—The International Hearing Society (IHS) and the Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA) will join forces, under the umbrella of the Hearing Healthcare Education Coalition (HHEC), to hold the inaugural Unison Hearing Health Global Summit September 8-11, 2016, in Chicago. Unison, which starting next year will take the…
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Hearing Industries Association leads an all-out effort for hearing aid tax credit
WASHINGTON, DC—When the Hearing Industries Association (HIA) holds both its biennial Hearing on the Hill and its annual meeting here this week, the trade association will be focused on passage of the Hearing Aid Tax Credit bill (S. 315). Although similar legislation introduced in the past several sessions of Congress has never been enacted despite…
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Ian Windmill is voted AAA president-elect; three new directors elected
RESTON, VA—American Academy of Audiology (AAA) members have elected a future president and three new members of the board of directors, all four of whom practice audiology in medical centers. In month-long voting that concluded on February 17, Ian M. Windmill, PhD, who is clinical director in the Division of Audiology at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital…
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William Demant and ReSound reach agreements with major hearing aid retailers
By David H. Kirkwood COPENHAGEN–Two of the hearing aid industry’s Big Six companies–William Demant, parent company of Oticon, and GN ReSound—are taking steps to strengthen their retail distribution channels. Demant announced yesterday (February 17) that it is negotiating to buy a majority interest in Audika Groupe, the largest network of hearing aid centers…
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