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IEM – no noise is good noise!

Whether you’re an active musician or a music-loving commuter, noise exposure via music is a very real concern. Musician, sound engineer and Puretone Sales Manager, Deke Frickey, looks at where the dangers lie and the best ways to overcome them....

A place for everything and everything in its place: the practicalities of randomised clinical trials

Will this pill cure tinnitus? Bonnie Millar describes one trial that has investigated the possibility whilst describing the path of drug trials in the UK. Background In the last quarter of 2014, a clinical trial (QUIET-1; ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02315508) commenced...

Pre-clinical development of magnetic delivery of therapy to middle and inner ears

Why are we developing this technology? A key problem in drug delivery is getting the therapy to the right place in the body, which is especially challenging for targets that are small, deep and are protected or surrounded by anatomical...

Simulation: human factors scenario training

It is said that surgical training has suffered as a result of a combination of factors – through the introduction of work time restrictions such as the European Working Time Directive (EWTD) [1], a limit on the number of years...

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....

The role of objective measures and imaging to optimise cochlear implant outcomes

Should we be using new or novel objective measures and imaging to assist with our cochlear implant patients? Debi Vickers and Shak Saeed describe current clinical techniques and present advances that have the potential to optimise outcomes. Introduction It is...

An update on laryngeal reinnervation

Laryngeal paralysis remains very difficult to treat, but reinnervation offers many attractions. Laryngeal paralysis presents a unique and varied problem that requires a patient centred approach and a range of treatment options depending on laryngeal and patient factors. There is...

Semi implantable bone conduction devices: challenges and developments

Bone conduction mechanisms and history of bone conduction aids Bone conduction hearing devices work by stimulating hair cells via the bone conduction hearing pathways. These pathways are less well understood than the air conduction pathways, but recent research has shown...