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The Apple effect: could Apple’s involvement redefine the future of hearing aid technology?

As Apple enters hearing health, this article explores how its tech may reduce stigma and reshape hearing care, without replacing clinical expertise. As hearing health professionals, we are all acutely aware of the gap between prevalence of hearing loss and...

Industry interaction with the ENT speciality

I was enormously grateful for the chance to articulate my personal thoughts on ‘the industry interaction with the ENT clinical community’. To set a context, the term ‘industry’ refers to medical technology manufacturers and suppliers, in addition to pharmaceutical companies....

Genetic discovery using animal models: presbyacusis

By their very nature, late-onset hereditary disorders offer a large window of opportunity for therapeutic intervention. However, before we can begin to think about strategies we need knowledge of the genetics and pathology underlying the condition. In this article we...

Developing outcome measures for research

There are challenges in developing outcomes measures; Professor Hall presents five top pointers for making rapid progress in developing outcome measures for research purposes. Anyone who has worked clinically with hearing loss will appreciate that every patient’s experience is personal....

OTC hearing aids: where are we now?

The ‘Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Act’ of 2017 set in motion plans for a long-debated shift in the hearing care market. In 2021, the FDA released draft guidance which will allow hearing aids in the US to be sold direct to...

The National Bone Conducting Hearing Implant Registry

Are you an otologist with an interest in implant surgery? Is your unit on the registry? If not, you’d better have a good excuse after reading this… What is the National BCHI Registry? The National Bone Conducting Hearing Implant (BCHI)...

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...

Deaf identity is not cookie cutter shaped: a CI user in a hearing world

Sam Burgess tells us what deaf identity means to her as a service manager in a busy healthcare library, with a cochlear Implant. To begin with, I have been deaf since birth due to congenital rubella. I have not known...

Chronic rhinosinusitis management: back to the future?

Immunology is a dim and distant medical school memory to many ENT surgeons, but the increasingly complex immunology of chronic rhinosinusitis is fascinating (honestly!). Medical management options in CRS no longer just involves saline and steroids, and we need to...

The Brain’s Connectome – a symphony inside our brains and how hearing loss disturbs the music

Understand us; where do we begin? In this article the authors’ introduce a project that may uncover that our personalities and traits are a product of the interconnected wiring within our brain. The team discusses the Human Connectome Project and...