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Lawrence Werth (19 October 1956 – 19 August 2014)

In August the audiology community was saddened to learn that Lawrence Werth (57), Chairman of PC Werth Ltd, London had passed away after a brave battle with skin cancer. A prolific contributor to this magazine over the years, he is...

Beyond ‘sticky floors’ and glass ceilings’: eight women department and society leaders share their stories

In the United States and Canada, there have been a total of 12 women otolaryngologists who have achieved high positions of leadership. Eight of these women were interviewed for this piece. Each woman’s responses were thoughtful and truthful. Common themes...

Thyroid cancer – the last decade

Professor Ashok Shaha describes the evolution in the treatment of thyroid cancer that he has witnessed over the last decade and the invaluable progress made by himself and others, from their contributions to staging systems and guidelines. Nuances and paradigm...

SEQaBOO: SEQuencing a Baby for an Optimal Outcome

There are at least 15 countries now running genome sequencing projects. The team in Manchester, UK, and Boston, USA, share their SEQaBOO project. Abstract SEQaBOO (SEQuencing a Baby for an Optimal Outcome) will transform newborn hearing screening (NBHS) by bringing...

Laryngeal papillomatosis

Laryngeal papillomatosis remains one of the most frustrating conditions seen by laryngologists. Sam Majumdar gives us an overview of the current science and clinical practice. Human papilloma virus is a small (> 8kb) double stranded DNA virus with approximately 200...

How cognition influences hearing aid use

Introduction Hearing aids are designed to provide amplification for individuals with poor auditory sensitivity. Signal processing algorithms are designed and implemented in hearing aids to further enhance speech intelligibility and to improve listening comfort by attenuating unwanted background noise. Sarampalis...

Cognitive effort and listening in everyday life

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,...

Leadership in healthcare

There is often a great deal of confusion over the words ‘management’ and ‘leadership’. Sometimes they are used interchangeably. Sometimes they are used to represent opposite ends of a spectrum. Sometimes both are used as collective nouns, or to describe an activity.

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...

The changing role of audiology

Audiology has changed dramatically in recent years. Cochlear implants and high power hearing aids have made hearing really available to children with essentially any degree of hearing loss. Those of us who have been in the field for a long...

Otology training in low- and middle-income countries: a view from within

It is recognised that hearing loss and ear disease are far more common in less affluent parts of the world, and that those countries are often least able to provide treatment; so how can we prioritise care for these patients?...

Direct-to-consumer hearing devices: a need to combine cosmetic appeal with device capabilities

How safe and desirable are direct-to-consumer amplification devices? A team has put a range of devices through their paces and compared them to a standard NHS hearing device. Why do most individuals who would benefit from hearing aids not try...