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Screening for hearing aid fittings – an approach for primary care

Introduction The communication difficulties related to hearing loss can lead to ‘depression, social withdrawal and problems with employment and access to information sources’ [1]. Furthermore, unmanaged hearing loss is associated with dementia, a poorer quality of life, depression, anxiety and...

Hidden hearing loss in humans

Awareness of cochlear synaptopathy (‘hidden hearing loss’) is growing. Chris Plack gives us an introduction to the condition, defining it and reviewing recent research in humans and animals with respect to noise exposure. The main cause of hearing loss is...

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...

The importance of hearing aid validation in infants with hearing loss

Hearing aid validation requires that speech discrimination be measured, yet there are no validated methods of measuring speech discrimination in infants and toddlers. Prof Uhler describes two related approaches that are showing promise. Speech discrimination is the gold standard for...

Hearing aid microphone considerations for binaural hearing: When to select natural or aggressive directional microphone technology?

Should I use omni-directional or fixed directionality? Does it make a difference if I’m fitting a unilateral hearing loss? Mark Laureyns discusses the current evidence on directional microphones and provides practical advice on the systems and when to employ them....

Cognition and hearing – you can’t test one with the other!

Cognitive Psychologist, Boaz M Ben-David, provides insights into the import of considering cognitive factors when assessing speech perception ability to maximise intervention success. Failing to do so, he suggests, is “ageist”, a predisposition healthcare professionals must avoid. Cognitive performance is...

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...

Big data and the future of cochlear implant aftercare

With a million people using cochlear implants worldwide, the time is right for us to harness this vast data for patient benefit. Every day, cochlear implant (CI) processors quietly collect data: how long they’re worn, how often users switch programs...

NHS collaboration and partnership with the pharmaceutical and medical devices industries

Historically the relationship between industry and the NHS has been a cautious one. Both sides have typically worked with only partially disclosed agendas, under a pervading fear of finding themselves on the wrong end of a win-lose negotiation. Things have...

Extended benefits of cochlear implantation in the elderly

With the challenges presented by an ageing population, Louise Craddock and Charlie Huins describe the benefits of cochlear implants for deaf elderly adults that go beyond improvement of hearing and speech understanding. Introduction People aged over 65 make up 7.4%...