New Resource Showcases Provider and Patient/Family Partnerships

A new monograph, “Positioning the Family and Patient at the Center: A Guide to Family and Patient Partnership in the Medical Home,” about family-centered care for pediatric patients, is now available from the National Center for Medical Home Implementation and the AAP. The monograph features family-centered medical home strategies from 17 pediatric primary care practices from across the country. To access the monograph, visit

Link: http://www.medicalhomeinfo.org/downloads/pdfs/Positioning_FINAL_May24.pdf

Storytelling Event Hosted for Deaf Students

The Louise Tumarkin Zazove Foundation held a deaf storytelling event recently at Eastern Michigan University’s Student Center. The event was organized by Philip Zazove, the first deaf medical doctor to graduate from the University of Michigan. It was intended to raise money for scholarships and financial assistance for deaf and hard of hearing students.

Link: http://www.easternecho.com/article/2013/05/foundation-hosts-storytelling-event-for-deaf-students

Boy with hearing loss sends hearing aids abroad

Twelve years after his first experience with hearing aids, a young man wants to share hope and encourage others who have hearing loss. He has worked with many others to help make his dream a reality. He, his dad and a team of audiologists from Utah State University will administer free hearing tests, hearing aids and sports jerseys to children in Ghana, a country in western Africa.

Link: http://www.northfulton.com/Articles-COMMUNITY-NEWS-c-2013-05-21-198920.114126-sub-Boy-with-hearing-loss-sends-hearing-aids-abroad.html

Purdue Innovation Could Help People with Severe Hearing Loss

A Purdue University researcher’s innovation may make it possible for people with severe hearing loss to hear high-frequency sounds. Joshua Alexander, an assistant professor in Purdue’s Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, said conventional hearing aids do not help listeners with severe hearing loss. Alexander discovered what listeners needed to enhance perception in the new pitch range, and then designed an algorithm to accommodate these needs. Read more…

Link: http://www.fortmilltimes.com/2013/05/14/2689795/purdue-innovation-could-help-people.html

Students Create App Designed to Improve Communication

Innovative work is being done by students at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock. Team Verbatim Signers recently designed an application that bridges the gap between the hearing and the deaf by using Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect system, to interpret and translate American Sign Language into both written and spoken text improving two-way communication for the hearing impaired. Read more about their app at the link below.

Link: http://ualr.edu/www/2013/05/07/students-create-app-head-to-microsoft-finals/

Closed Captioning Glasses Soon to be Available to More than 6000 Cinema Screens

More than 6,000 Regal cinema screens are about to become a lot friendlier to deaf and hearing-impaired moviegoers with the introduction of special closed-captioning glasses made by Sony. The glasses were announced last year, but they will get a major rollout to Regal Entertainment Group theaters this month after a successful test program. That means more than 6,000 screens across the country will offer the technology to deaf and hard-of-hearing customers.

Link: http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-57584210-1/closed-captioning-glasses-get-big-rollout-to-cinemas/