Ken Wood wanted his employees to better understand the struggles and frustration people with a hearing loss encounter every day. So about three years ago, at a staff training, Wood outfitted them with custom earplugs and silenced their world. Wood, born with a hearing defect, believes people can sympathize with a physical handicap because they see the person in a wheelchair or the blind person walking down the street with cane. “But it’s hard to understand somebody with hearing loss,” said Wood, who’s owned UpState Hearing in Redding since 1990. The company provides hearing aids and other instruments to assist the hearing-impaired.

Link: http://ow.ly/eHXR2

A young Palestinian girl will finally head home to Gaza after surgery at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia where she has spent the last 18 months with surgeons working on constructing new ears for her (due to congenital microtia) and inserting a cochlear implant.

Link: http://ow.ly/eF8EN

States across the country are improving diagnosis, early intervention (EI) services and support for families with infants who have hearing loss. In the U.S., approximately 63,000 newborns out of 4 million born each year fail their hearing t

Link: http://www.nichq.org/resources/IHSIS-Oct2012.html

What actually causes hearing loss in humans? And what are the best therapeutic approaches to this problem? Modern medicine hasn’t yet been able to provide doctors with the right answers in many cases, because there has been no way to observe the tissue of the inner ear, without destroying it.

Harvard Medical School and EPFL partner are working to uncover details behind hearing loss and causes in humans.

Link: http://ow.ly/eFXo0

Do you know the risks of buying hearing aids
online or over the counter? Experts warn about some of the dangers. Find
out more by following this link and spread the word.

Link: http://ow.ly/eu8Mx

There’s nothing more frustrating than technology that doesn’t work
correctly – especially when it’s something you depend upon, like your
hearing aids. But before you take those hearing aids into the repair
center, take a moment to read this article. You may be able to solve the
problem all by yourself.

Link: http://www.healthyhearing.com/content/articles/Hearing-aids/Types/50736-Troubleshooting-common-hearing-aid-problems

ATA’s public policy team will provide
a one hour review of the latest news and opportunities in the field of
telemedicine, with a special emphasis on state policy developments and
the impact of the 2012 elections.

This videocast is free and open to both ATA members and non-members. Pre-registration is NOT required.

When: Tuesday, October 30;  2:00pm-3:00pm ET

• Jonathan Linkous, Chief Executive Officer, American Telemedicine Association
• Gary Capistrant, Senior Director of Public Policy, American Telemedicine Association

TO ACCESS THIS VIDEOCAST:

1. Open the following URL in your browser:
   http://services.choruscall.com/links/ata121030.html
2. When prompted, enter code 35465

For technical assistance, please contact ChorusCall at: (412) 858-1395.

Link: http://services.choruscall.com/links/ata121030.html

Public comments are a cornerstone of Healthy People 2020. There will be
opportunities for public input periodically throughout the decade to
ensure that Healthy People 2020 reflects current public health
priorities.

You are now able to (a) comment on proposed new objectives to be added
to the Educational and Community-Based Programs and Social Determinants
of Health Topic Areas, and (b) propose new objectives to be included in 1
of the 42 existing Healthy People 2020 Topic
Areas.

To participate in the public comment period, visit the
online public comment database. Comments began to be accepted on October 15, 2012 and will continue to be accepted through 5:00pm ET on November 2, 2012.

Link: http://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/about/publicComment.aspx?source=govdelivery

We’ve posted a new paper regarding the effectiveness of Tele-intervention. This study took place in Australia and the results demonstrate the potential of telemedicine service delivery for teaching listening and spoken language to children with hearing loss in rural and remote areas.

Link: http://www.infanthearing.org/ti-guide/docs/Constantinescu-2012-Satisfaction-with-telemedicine.pdf

Researchers at the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL) have found a treatment for a hearing problem affecting about 18,000 children that can be installed on a home computer.

The condition, Spatial Processing Disorder (SPD), makes it diffi

Link: http://ow.ly/emzRl