Audiology features
Impact of outer ear problems in Northern Ethiopia: experiences of a global outreach clinic
Outer ear disease is one of the commonest reasons for attending the ENT clinic in Ethiopia, just as in the UK. Very little has been published on the experiences of ENT clinics in Ethiopia. Here Yilkal Tassew, Seid Temam and...
Personal perspective of a hearing aid user: In conversation with Alistair Cruickshank
Alistair Cruickshank explains how he has embraced technological changes to improve his day-to-day listening experiences as a hearing aid user. He explains the importance of experimenting and trying out different approaches and how much he values working closely with his...
Wisdom and the cochlear implant clinician
Helen Cullington provides the clinician’s perspective on the challenges faced in building artificial intelligence into cochlear implant clinics. She highlights the importance of including the clinician with their wisdom and experience to help make sense of the patterns of data....
Hearables: in-ear sensing devices for recording of physiological signals
Colver Ken Howe Ne, Jameel Muzaffar and Manohar Bance discuss the potential of hearable systems to monitor physiological signals (e.g. from brain or heart, blood pressure, body temperature) unobtrusively. Such adaptations require high-quality sensors and sophisticated de-noising signal processing on...
Machine learning to support audiology
Jessica Monaghan and David Allen discuss how machine learning, using a wealth of data provided by hearing devices, can be used to streamline their functionality and fitting. They report on how it has been used to support clinicians to maximise...
Can the audiology clinic benefit from advances in virtual reality?
François Patou discusses how the recent advances in virtual reality technologies can be used to support people living with hearing loss. He outlines some of the novel virtual reality tools that are emerging as resources to support delivery of audiology...
Whale hearing tests through evoked potential audiometry
Covering over 70% of the earth’s surface and reaching known depths of 11km, the world’s oceans tick the box for an extreme environment. What do we know of the impact of environmental noise on the deep-sea dwellers of this habitat?...
Microgravity: an extreme environment for otolith organs
Motion sickness in a car can be upsetting for all involved. Transferring this concept into a tiny cabin bound for space could have devastating consequences. Are the processes involved in ‘space motion sickness’ the same as motion sickness? How do...
Alternobaric vertigo: asymmetrical vestibular function due to asymmetrical middle ear pressures (Iron Man’s archenemy)
The Marvel Cinematic Universe could certainly be deemed an ‘extreme environment’ and yet very rarely do we see the Avenger’s popping to the clinic for a check-up. Hee-Young Kim has wondered how they cope with extreme pressure changes and discusses...
Neurological idiopathic disease: a shared journey for NASA and medicine
Whilst Southampton can’t really be described as an extreme environment, experiments carried out in the city have certainly been taken out of this world. Robert Marchbanks discusses one of the associations between Southampton, The International Space Station and tympanic membrane...
Kuduwave™ testing aboard the ISS
What does it take to make an audiometer and tympanometry ready for the space age? In a recent interview, Jillian Scotland and Dirk Koekemoer shared their first-hand experience of getting the Kuduwave ready for a voyage to the ISS. It...
Composing with Meniere’s disease: a personal reflection
Is a fluctuating hearing loss and composing music incompatible? Professor Andrew Hugill discusses his personal experience of Meniere’s disease and the work that has developed as a result of the condition. As I write this article, I am in the...
