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OTC hearing aids

The potential for the deregulation of hearing aid technology, through the Over-The-Counter Act has led to a tremendous amount of opinions and views from all stakeholders in the US. You don’t have to go far on the internet, social media...

Diagnosing and managing somatic tinnitus

Interactions between auditory and somatosensory pathways can lead to interesting tinnitus experiences which can be very bothersome. Dr Sarah Michiels describes her pioneering work in this area, and the possibilities of physiotherapy based therapy. Background Somatic (also called somatosensory) tinnitus...

The ENT operating theatre viewed down the retrospectoscope

We learn much of our future by looking at our past; Douglas MacMillan provides us with a fascinating glimpse into his years as a junior doctor. The operating theatre was a somewhat alien environment in the late 1960s: theatre sisters...

The Journal of the Colleges of Medicine of South Africa (JCMSA): a model for sharing research from low- and middle-income countries

A new open-access journal from South Africa offers a sustainable model to amplify research from low- and middle-income countries and rebalance global health knowledge. More than 80% of the world’s population lives in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Yet high-income...

Long-term outcomes of children and young people with cochlear implants

Introduction Profound childhood hearing loss has a huge impact on early communication skills, the acquisition of spoken language, and hence on educational attainments and employment prospects. Over the centuries, educators of the deaf attempted to overcome the challenge by using...

Globalisation, interconnectivity and unintended consequences

Drs Mom and Lea have thrown down the gauntlet, challenging us all to openly assess the global impact we have as countries, societies, surgeons and individuals. Being a surgeon is not all about surgery. How we respond will define our...

The role of metrics in studies of hearing and cognition

Introduction When perceiving sounds in real-world listening environments, older adults encounter several sources of degradation that can interfere with the perceptual process (Figure 1). Target signals (i.e. the sounds that a listener wants to focus on) have specific acoustic characteristics...

Out of Africa: Audiovannah audiology clinic in Zimbabwe

Audiovannah reception area. In 2015 two Danish audiologists, Jenny Pedersen and Nicolai Pedersen, relocated to Zimbabwe and opened a full service audiology clinic (Audiovannah) in the capital city of Harare. The focus has been to give back as much as...

Sushruta and Indian rhinoplasty

Vijay Pothula explains rhinoplasty’s roots in ancient Indian Ayurvedic medicine, and how it was introduced to the Western world. In 1794 The Gentleman’s Magazine published a surgical operation which was long established in India but unknown in Europe [1]. A...