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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...

Audiological monitoring in ototoxicity - Are we doing enough?

In this article Ghada Al-Malky explores the dichotomy of life-saving, yet hearing loss-causing medication, and questions whether the hearing healthcare community is doing enough to prevent preventable hearing loss. Ototoxicity is the damage to hearing and / or balance functions...

Clinical leadership and management: developing world ENT

I have been asked to share some of the initiatives I have been involved with to address ENT-related challenges in Africa and the developing world. Developing countries constitute the majority of the world’s landmass (Figure 1), are home to >50%...

Remote hearing aid fittings and maintenance – exploring applications in Africa

Introduction Technology and connectivity are allowing audiological services to be provided in novel ways. The field of telehealth, although firmly established over the past two decades, is buoyed by the continued and rapid advances in information and communication technologies. Remote...

Public health planning for hearing impairment (2017)

In 2009 Professor Andrew Smith and Dr Daksha Patel identified the need for awareness of public health methods in hearing healthcare planning. In 2010 the first training course was held, and since then 760 health workers from 41 countries have...

In conversation with Shelly Chadha 2019

Shelly Chadha works at the World Health Organisation as the Medical Officer for ear and hearing care. Here, Alex Griffiths-Brown interviews her to find out more about her career, challenges she’s faced and her ambitions for the future. Shelly Chadha....

EEG as a measure of neuroplasticity in children

Measuring changes in neural activity can teach us a lot about hearing loss and the effect of gained functional hearing. In this article, the authors describe how electroencephalography (EEG) is being used to effectively measure such changes in children with...

What you need to know about recent advances in genetics of hearing loss in the newborn

Identifying the underlying genetic cause of hearing loss in newborns can improve dramatically the early diagnosis and appropriate intervention. Hearing loss is the most common sensory disorder at birth, affecting approximately two out of 1000 newborns [1]. Congenital impaired hearing...

Implicit bias in audiology and wider healthcare

What is implicit bias and how might it affect patient outcomes in hearing healthcare? Yovina Khiroya provides insight into the terminology and the effect on people and service delivery. As much as possible within healthcare, we try to reduce implicit...

Achieving consensus on candidacy for cochlear implantation

The British Cochlear Implant Group’s candidacy working group recently ran a national exercise, working towards a consensus on candidacy for cochlear implantation in the UK. Padraig Kitterick and Debi Vickers were instrumental in this exercise, and in the article below,...

Auditory brainstem implant results in adults and children

Background The auditory brainstem implant (ABI) has been developed from cochlear implant (CI) technology and is indicated for people who have anatomical abnormalities of the cochlea or dysfunction of the auditory nerve. The majority of people who have received an...