Hearing Fitness-for-Work Protocols
by Mike Metz Compensation for hearing-impaired workers has been sort of on the back burner for many years. Audiologists are occasionally called upon to measure and compute the hearing disability associated with hearing injuries resulting from workplace noise exposure. A potentially larger issue of workplace hearing loss involves “fitness for duty” decisions. Audiologists are…
Read MoreWhy Advocates Like Me Welcome the New Hearing Aid Ruling
by Katherine Bouton People with hearing loss got a bit of a break last week when the US Food and Drug Administration announced that it is considering creating a new category of over-the-counter hearing aids. The aim, it said, would be to encourage “new, innovative, lower-cost products to millions of consumers.” Thirty million Americans…
Read MoreMetz’s Medicine and Audiology – Part 2
by Mike Metz Getting back to our roots, James Jerger’s editorial in a recent trade publication (Jerger, J, Audiology Today, Is It Time to Panic? Sep/Oct, 2016), raises some issues that may prove pivotal to the field. And impending changes to the scope and practice of audiology may get some help from a peculiar…
Read MoreDoes Medicine Need Audiology? Part 1
By Mike Metz A friend recently asked me for an audiology referral because he had a unilateral hearing problem along with some other rather vague symptoms. I sent him on but then began thinking of the differences in audiology now versus audiology in years past. Many audiologists work in a medical office setting, overseen by…
Read MoreLocked Hearing Aid Software — Additional Comments
by Mike Metz A short time ago, I wrote a post regarding lack of access to the software of some hearing aids. My comments arose from conversations with other dispensing audiologists. They saw patients that were having problems with hearing aids purchased from large distributors — Big Box stores primarily. Evidently, patients believed that they were…
Read MoreThe Boomers are Coming! Part 2 – Ideas to Think About
by Steve Eagon, MA In part 1 of this two-part series, I mentioned how we’ve all heard about the Baby-Boomers flooding our offices, and the unique challenges they bring. In this article, I’m going to make suggestions based upon what I’ve seen from various hearing care professionals around North America who are addressing these…
Read More