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Exploring teenagers’ access and use of assistive hearing technology

Children require good signal-to-noise ratios for optimum listening and learning. The use of remote microphone technology can be of benefit, yet older children often resist using it. Jennifer Groth reviews the challenges facing older children in the use of remote...

Benchmarking for innovation in healthcare ­– an approach from 
Down Under and a gap in the 
National Health Service?

Benchmarking is a process of comparison between the performance characteristics of separate, often competing, organisations intended to enable each participant to improve its own performance [1]. Often, in healthcare, benchmarking is carried out by central government departments or regional agencies...

Wound moisture sensing in traumatic wounds

Wounds can be small and unpleasant, or may be large and life-threatening. The skin is a physical and an immunological barrier to infection, and any defect in the integrity of the skin may enable bacterial or fungal invasion. The successful...

Harnessing social networks - connecting the global paediatric ENT community

Hannah Burns radiates enthusiasm and commitment to improving communications across geographical and political boundaries. When the pandemic hit in 2020, she took to social media to share her thoughts and offered a forum for colleagues. In the midst of the...

From battlefield to homefront: how the First World War shifted perceptions of deafness

The First World War marked a pivotal moment in the understanding and treatment of hearing loss and deafness. Prior to the war, deafness had been largely attributed to congenital causes. This view was influenced by a negative eugenic Darwinist ideology...

Adult hearing screening: consideration for a holistic model

Background Adult-onset hearing impairment is a highly prevalent and undertreated chronic problem that poses a significant burden of disease worldwide [1]. It is usually gradual and diagnosed and managed approximately 10 years after adults have first experienced hearing difficulties [2]....

Combined use of a hearing aid and a cochlear implant: a case study

When multi-channel cochlear implants (CIs) were first introduced in the 1980s, their use was restricted to people who derived no benefit from conventional amplification. Over the past three decades, however, the criteria for CIs has been relaxed considerably, and it...

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) and the vestibular system: a case study

This team of audiologists from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Centre discuss an eight year old with congenital CMV, a neonatal infection which is usually asymptomatic, and provide guidance on how to recognise the signs in the paediatric population, and screen...

OTC hearing aids: where are we now?

The ‘Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act’ of 2017 set in motion plans for a long-debated shift in the hearing care market. In 2021, the FDA released draft guidance which will allow hearing aids in the US to be sold direct to...

Marshall Chasin: the harmony of music and audiology

Marshall Chasin, synonymous with the science of hearing and the art of music, discusses the techniques and technology he has employed over this career... so far. What’s the difference between your practice now and when you first started out? I...

Imaging tinnitus

Tinnitus is a common sensation with a reported prevalence of 7-32%. The British National Study of Hearing recorded that 10% of adults suffered from prolong spontaneous tinnitus, and approximately a quarter of these are subsequently referred to hospital for investigation...