Can Behavioral Speech-In-Noise Tests Improve the Quality of Hearing Aid Fittings?

The purpose of this article is to propose 4 dimensions for consideration in hearing aid fittings and 4 tests to evaluate those dimensions. The 4 dimensions and tests are (a) working memory, evaluated by the Revised Speech Perception in Noise test (Bilger, Nuetzel, & Rabinowitz, 1984); (b) performance in noise, evaluated by the Quick Speech in Noise test (QSIN; Killion, Niquette, Gudmundsen, Revit, & Banerjee, 2004); (c) acceptance of noise, evaluated by the Acceptable Noise Level test (ANL; Nabelek, Tucker, & Letowski, 1991); and (d) performance versus perception, evaluated by the Perceptual–Performance test (PPT; Saunders & Cienkowski, 2002). The authors discuss the 4 dimensions and tests in the context of improving the quality of hearing aid fittings.

Healthy People 2020

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched Healthy People 2020 in December 2010, announcing the new 10-year goals and objectives for health promotion and disease prevention. Healthy People is designed to improve the quality of the nation’s health and provide a framework for public health prevention priorities and actions. A newly redesigned website ( http://www.healthypeople.gov ) allows users to tailor information to individual or community needs and to explore evidence-based resources. A major principle states that national objectives and monitoring progress are critical factors in motivating action. An extensive feedback process was initiated by the Department of Health and Human Services to develop comprehensive objectives; previous topic areas were carried forward, and new areas were identified. Chief Technology Officer Todd Park stated, “This milestone in disease prevention and health promotion creates an opportunity to leverage information technology to make Healthy People come alive for all Americans in their communities and workplaces” (U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2011). Healthy People 2020 includes initiatives to hearing and communication disorders which are considered important to the overall well being of the population.

Quality 101: What Every Audiologist and Speech-Language Pathologist Should Know But Is Afraid to Ask

The United States has the highest per capita health care costs of any industrialized nation in the world. Increasing costs are reducing access to care and constitute an increasingly heavy burden on employers and consumers. Yet as much as 20 to 30 percent of these costs may be unnecessary, or even counterproductive, to improved health (Wennberg, Brownless, Fisher, Skinner, & Weinstein, 2008). Addressing these unwanted costs is essential in the survival of providing quality health care. This article reviews 11 dimensions that should be considered when starting a quality improvement program as well as one quality improvement tool, the Juran model, that is commonly used in the healthcare and business settings. Implementing a quality management program is essential for survival in today’s market place and is no longer an option. While it takes time to implement a quality management program, the costs are too high not to.

Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists: Making Critical Cross-Disciplinary Connections For Quality Care in Early Hearing Detection and Intervention

Widespread realization of newborn hearing screening has made it possible to routinely identify hearing loss shortly after birth, expanding opportunities for children born with permanent hearing loss. For children to reach their full potential, high-quality comprehensive services need to be provided in a timely manner. Because the roles of the audiologist and speech-language pathologist vary significantly from family to family in an American Sign Language approach, this article focuses primarily on the roles these professionals serve within a listening and spoken language communication approach. An overview of components of quality assessment and intervention for audiology and speech-language pathology are discussed, as are the benefits and opportunities of interdisciplinary collaboration. Newborn hearing screenings, advanced hearing technology, and early education have the potential to affect the lives of children with hearing loss and their families; however, successful families and children rely on quality, collaborative intervention from their service providers. Together, speech-language pathologists and audiologists can better understand a child’s responses to sound, more effectively set hearing technology to maximize access to sound, and support parents in their ability to help their children reach their full potential.

Improving the Quality of Auditory Training by Making Tasks Meaningful

Traditional auditory training (AT) typically includes activities that focus on the formal properties of sounds without requiring attention to meaning. After reviewing the psycholinguistic bases for requiring attention to meaning, the authors present a series of examples of how to modify purely form-oriented AT activities so that they become meaning oriented. For example, a purely form-oriented same–different task with /ba/–/pa/ or /ba/–/ba/ can be modified using minimal pairs such as /bear/–/pear/ or /bear/–/bear/ and by requiring listeners to identify appropriate picture pairs in order (i.e., pictures of a bear and then a pear, or of a bear and then another bear). The modified version requires attention to meaning, whereas the original version does not. The authors promote a nonhierarchical and interactive approach to AT in which activities at 3 linguistic levels (word, sentence, and discourse) are included from the beginning and throughout AT, but with activities that are carefully designed to be meaning oriented and in which comprehension is the central focus. In the Summary By Example section, the authors describe an AT program (I Hear What You Mean; Tye-Murray, Barcroft, & Sommers, in press) that was designed to be meaning oriented at the word, sentence, and discourse levels. Specific benefits of providing meaning-based AT, such as higher levels of participant engagement, are highlighted.

Audiology Service Models in a Family Physician Practice Setting

This article illustrates the potential of placing audiology services in a family physician’s practice setting to increase referrals of geriatric and pediatric patients to audiologists. The primary focus of family practice physicians is the diagnosis/intervention of critical systemic disorders (e.g., cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer). Hence concurrent hearing/balance disorders are likely to be overshadowed in such patients. If audiologists get referrals from these physicians and have direct access to diagnose and manage concurrent hearing/balance problems in these patients, successful audiology practice patterns will emerge, and there will be increased visibility and profitability of audiological services. As a direct consequence, audiological services will move into the mainstream of healthcare delivery, and the profession of audiology will move further towards its goals of early detection and intervention for hearing and balance problems in geriatric and pediatric populations.

Development of a Computer-Based, Multi-media Hearing Loss Prevention Education Program for Veterans and Military Personnel

Purpose: Noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus are prevalent and costly problems for military personnel and Veterans. To reduce the prevalence and burden of these conditions, the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs are working together to develop an interactive, computer-based, multimedia hearing loss prevention education program that can be delivered at military bases, primary care or other medical settings. Method: One participant at a time interacts with the program inside a sound-attenuated enclosure that is large enough for wheelchair access. A computer touch screen allows participants to select among a variety of activities, including a self-administered screening test of high-frequency hearing; learning why, when, and how to protect hearing; learning how hearing works and how loud sounds damage hearing; learning how sound intensity is measured and which sounds are too loud; listening to demonstrations of simulated hearing loss; learning how to select and use hearing protective devices; learning about tinnitus; and learning about hearing health care services available at each site. Results/Conclusions: The program will be made available to all Veterans, military personnel, and other members of the public through the internet and at medical centers throughout the country.