Dining with family members, amongst the clinking of dishes and glasses, the sounds of conversations and laughter, the husband, a user of hearing aids, misses his wife’s request to bring another bottle of wine. After a third try, the wife,...
Introduction Patient-centred care in the health sector is a worldwide concern [1, 2]. Patient-centred rehabilitation is characterised by availability, appropriateness, preference, and timelines [3]. A consensus report by the Institute of Medicine [4] defines a patient-centred approach as ‘providing care...
“Dr Marion P Downs, an innovator in the field of paediatric audiology and a tireless advocate for the early identification of hearing loss, passed away on November 13, 2014. During her exemplary career at the University of Colorado Health Sciences...
The relatively recent emergence of cochlear implantation as a potential means of restoring hearing to a deafened ear, in the presence of normal hearing in the other ear, has proved an exciting and yet surprising development. James Tysome explores the...
Are they a malingerer? Or perhaps they are inattentive? It may be their drugs! Robert DiSogra considers the side-effects of medication on the test subject. The audiogram serves many purposes in clinical practice. For the audiologist, it helps to differentiate...
The stigma surrounding hearing aids means that many people who would benefit from wearing them are put off from doing so. Alternative listening devices could provide the solution to this. David Maidment discusses these devices, their effectiveness and the impact...
Intuitively, as health professionals, we know that universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) makes sense. Bolajoko Olusanya outlines how UNHS fits in with global health priorities, as well as illustrating how such programmes can help to deliver additional benefits to communities....
Prevention and treatment of hearing loss needs to be viewed through a public health lens, but what does that look like? Kelly Reavis and colleagues explain the steps to addressing hearing healthcare from a public health perspective and why this...
Early hearing detection and intervention programmes have been implemented in many countries across the globe, but why are these programmes so important and how are our Canadian colleagues managing this process? The consequences of being born with a permanent hearing...
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 COVID-19 pandemic has required healthcare services globally to show both resilience and ingenuity in redesigning services to meet the ever-changing needs of our patients. We hear about the redevelopment of clinical pathways within an hearing implant service, and the...
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...