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Developing medical devices for children: opportunities and challenges

The development of medical devices for infants and children lags significantly behind the development of devices for adults. While in the United States the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has set up incentives for developing child age-specific pharmaceuticals, there is...

‘Want an upgrade?’ Moral distress in audiology

Ethical practice in audiology has become a hot topic in recent years, particularly in the independent sector where sales can be linked to commissions. Andrea Simpson has explored this issue in her research and shares her insight into the drivers...

Deaf identity in audiology services: exploring the significance and implications

Dr Celia Hulme, a culturally Deaf * sign language user, draws from her personal experience and extensive PhD research on Deaf signers’ experiences with audiology services. *In this article, the convention of using an uppercase ‘D’ is used to denote...

Benchmarking for innovation in healthcare ­– an approach from 
Down Under and a gap in the 
National Health Service?

Benchmarking is a process of comparison between the performance characteristics of separate, often competing, organisations intended to enable each participant to improve its own performance [1]. Often, in healthcare, benchmarking is carried out by central government departments or regional agencies...

How good ideas become great products: in conversation with three medical innovators

Ever had a great idea for an innovation that would significantly improve your practice, but wondered how to go about developing it? Lucy Dalton interviewed three consultant ENT surgeons-come-successful innovators (one international, one novice and one experienced) who explain what...

Workplace culture: observations of audiology in Northern England and Western Australia

Working with a diverse workforce and coping with transition forced me to consider the importance of cultural differences in the workplace. Only by trying to understand these differences can you understand others’ behaviour and what motivates the team. I have...

Facing up to the challenge of behavioural observation in infant hearing assessment

The ability to assess detection and discrimination of speech by infants has proved elusive. Dr Iain Jackson and colleagues discuss how new technologies and fresh approaches might offer valuable insight into young infants’ behavioural responses to sound. The limits of...

Manuel Patricio Rodriguez Garcia (1805-1906): The ‘inventor of the laryngoscope’ and world-renowned singing teacher

Paris was the birthplace of the laryngoscope, invented by Manuel Garcia. As we are in Paris for IFOS 2017, Neil Weir tells us about this fascinating man, who travelled the world and was a renowned singer and laryngologist. Manuel Patricio...

Thyroid ultrasound elastography: does nodule stiffness predict malignancy?

Approximately 50% of the general population has a thyroid nodule while 5-15% of these are malignant [1]. A major challenge, therefore, is how to detect the malignant nodules for appropriate, timely treatment and avoid unnecessary, costly investigations for the remainder....