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Access to and uptake of cochlear implants in the UK

Assessing demands on cochlear implant (CI) services is very important for both commissioners and clinicians in anticipating clinical need and funding requirements. Commercial CI’s were introduced in the late 1980s. Initial funding was from charitable sources. The first major advance...

Cognitive spare capacity: what is it and why does it matter?

Cognition refers to thinking and memory. So why would cognition be a useful concept for ENTs and audiologists? Audition provides our main channel of communication and when we speak to each other, we want to exchange thoughts and remember what...

Case studies – transformational benefits of using connecting hearing aids

While hearing aids can provide great benefits there remain some challenging situations for people with hearing loss. These include listening in background noise, groups, using the telephone and listening to TV / music. Hearing aids with integrated wireless functionality allow...

Living with Usher syndrome

“Usher people often still have sharp, clear central vision. It is the corner of their eye that is missing. This is why the Usher person often does not feel or look blind. In the early days they may not even...

Establishing a hearing service and ear hospital in Nepal: the Ear Aid Nepal experience

Following the earthquake that devastated Nepal in April 2015, the year ended on a positive note with the opening of an ENT hospital in Pokhara. Mike Smith, a UK-born ENT surgeon has been the driving force behind the conception and...

What’s new in the cochlea?

Prof Furness in this article rounds up the steps and leaps being made by the scientific community to develop therapies to support, rejuvenate and / or replace the cochlear structures. David’s electron microscope images of the cochlear structures are world...

Universal newborn hearing screening: a global health perspective

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....

Central auditory changes in SNHL

Robert Harrison discusses some of the most obvious ways in which cochlear hearing loss has central consequences. It is convenient to classify hearing loss according to the most obvious site of lesion, for example, conductive, cochlear, retro-cochlear, or central hearing...

Hearing aid outcomes in older adults: what and when to measure

What matters to older adults when purchasing a hearing aid? Larry Humes explores the domains that should be measured for this key group. This article identifies key domains of hearing aid outcome in older adults. Increasingly, third-party payers and private-pay...

Hyperacusis-related distress and comorbid psychiatric illness

Research suggests that over 50% of patients presenting with hyperacusis also present with some form of psychiatric disorder. With this in mind, Dr Aazh outlines what tools clinicians can use to screen for psychological disorders and what path to take...

Standards for Safe Listening – how they align and how some differ

The ‘Make Listening Safe workgroup’ is an initiative of The World Health Organization (WHO) in the framework of the World Hearing Forum and is committed to creating a world where nobody’s hearing is put in danger due to unsafe listening....

Fall prevention in the elderly population

A fall in later life can have a catastrophic impact on a person’s quality of life. Lilian Felipe explains how falls prevention programmes and vestibular rehabilitation can help.