Audiology features
Precision and personalised genomic and epigenomic medicine in audiology/hearing loss
A detailed look at the pathogenesis of acquired hearing loss due to exposure to ototoxicity during pregnancy or shortly after birth. Insights from genomic medicine have shown that, along with environmental factors causing epigenetic alterations, hearing loss may be caused...
SEQaBOO: SEQuencing a Baby for an Optimal Outcome
There are at least 15 countries now running genome sequencing projects. The team in Manchester, UK, and Boston, USA, share their SEQaBOO project. Abstract SEQaBOO (SEQuencing a Baby for an Optimal Outcome) will transform newborn hearing screening (NBHS) by bringing...
Genetics and the newborn hearing screen: the future is now
Eliot Shearer shares the progress being made with newborn hearing screening 60 years on from where it started, and future directions for identifying hearing loss using physiologic, genetic and cCMV screening. Newborn screening had its birth in the early 1960s,...
Innovative approaches to treating deafness
Shahar Taiber and Karen Avraham give us a summary of gene therapies for hearing loss, with an overview of limitations and what the future holds. Hearing loss is the most common sensory disorder. The last two decades have seen a...
100,000 Genomes Project: in conversation with Tess Lopez
For Jul/Aug 2021, ENT & Audiology News features several contributions from the 100,000 Genomes Project, and Tess Lopez very kindly agreed to talk to me about her involvement with the project, as well as sharing her personal experiences of having...
Using tele-audiology in Zambia’s ear and hearing care desert
Addressing the medical desert with tele-audiology and tele-education. If a ‘medical desert’ is defined as a community that lives more than 60 miles away from the nearest acute care hospital, then try to imagine an appropriate term for a situation...
Barrier and opportunities for hearing care: finding a way forward for all
Ideal models of care for communities can include tailored ear and hearing care interventions. Barriers exist at an individual and societal level to realise the vision of hearing care for all, regardless of country or resource setting. Affordability of hearing...
Outreach to build capacity for surgical ear care in low-resource settings: challenges and opportunities
There are successful models for delivering complex ear surgery where resources may be more limited. Ear, nose and throat conditions are frequently overlooked when global health issues are considered, but hearing loss is the world’s most common sensory deficit, and...
Use of automated audiometry for faster patient access to audiology services?
Manual audiometry has long been the gold standard for establishing hearing thresholds. In recent years, a number of automated audiometry applications have reached the market. In this article, a team from Ireland have put a version of automated audiometry to...
Addressing the hearing needs of people with dementia
Dr Dawes provides a comprehensive overview of hearing needs of persons with dementia coupled with recommended guidelines for hearing-related considerations when assessing and intervening with persons with dementia. With ageing populations, we face a global dementia challenge. Rates of both...
2020 Lancet Commission on dementia: a call to action for integrated hearing healthcare
Dr Georgiou’s summary of the 2020 update to the 2017 Lancet Commission underscores the importance of medical and hearing healthcare professionals working together to tackle the modifiable risk factors that affect individuals throughout their lives, to help delay or even...
Cognition and hearing – you can’t test one with the other!
Cognitive Psychologist, Boaz M Ben-David, provides insights into the import of considering cognitive factors when assessing speech perception ability to maximise intervention success. Failing to do so, he suggests, is “ageist”, a predisposition healthcare professionals must avoid. Cognitive performance is...
