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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...

Supporting music listening through cochlear implant services – experience from a UK adult clinic on supporting musical engagement

The perception and enjoyment of music is central to many people’s lives. Harriet Crook (herself a cochlear implant recipient) tells us about important work in this area for people using hearing aids and CIs. There is now a wealth of...

Pharma chameleon

One morning in September ’95, about a month into my first house job on the South Coast of England, I emerged from the ridiculously early ward round on the coronary care unit feeling a bit dazed and therefore headed off...

From surgeon to scholar: the remarkable life of Philip Stell

Professor Philip Stell was an extraordinary man: following an astonishingly illustrious career in ENT, he excelled as a medieval historian. With the Philip Stell Prize due to be awarded in May, his friend Pat Bradley looks back at his remarkable...

Semi implantable bone conduction devices: challenges and developments

Bone conduction mechanisms and history of bone conduction aids Bone conduction hearing devices work by stimulating hair cells via the bone conduction hearing pathways. These pathways are less well understood than the air conduction pathways, but recent research has shown...

How cognition influences hearing aid use

Introduction Hearing aids are designed to provide amplification for individuals with poor auditory sensitivity. Signal processing algorithms are designed and implemented in hearing aids to further enhance speech intelligibility and to improve listening comfort by attenuating unwanted background noise. Sarampalis...

The role of significant others in hearing aid adoption

Presbycusis, or age-related hearing loss, is one of the most common conditions affecting older adults and its prevalence is found to increase with age. Over the years, amplification technology has advanced significantly from analogue to digital signal processing. Despite this,...

Database WG2. The Tinnitus Patient Database in the TINNET COST Action BM1306

Berthold Langguth describes an innovative project that is creating the world’s largest multi-national patient database containing standardised information on tinnitus and medical history, otological examination and psycho-acoustic measures of tinnitus. A challenge for tinnitus treatment and tinnitus research is the...

The challenge of disrupting the hearing care market in the USA

Barry Freeman, an Audiology Consultant of extensive global experience, examines the business model of hearing care service delivery in America. He discusses the challenges the profession has faced, and proposes some food for thought on learning from other health care...

Health related quality of life measures as outcome parameters in middle ear diseases

Surely the only outcome needed for post-surgical ears is a better PTA? Marcus Neudert argues there should be more to it than that. To draw a comprehensive picture of the disease-associated restrictions in patients with chronic otitis media, audiometric outcome...

A binaural detection task that reveals deficits in listeners having ‘slight’ or ‘hidden’ hearing loss

The association of degraded binaural processing in adults with clinically defined ‘slight’ or ‘hidden’ high frequency hearing loss is of great interest to clinicians if it can be measured. Leslie R Bernstein and Constantine Trahiotis share their findings in measurements...

What’s hidden in hidden hearing loss?

In order to truly understand the many key aspects of acquired sensorineural hearing loss, the role of cochlear synaptopathy or ‘hidden hearing loss’ must be considered. Dan Guo and Sharon Kujawa review and summarise what we know to date, including...