Hearing Economics

Today’s post ventures into unfamiliar territory for many of us, the pedagogy of equations and statistics. It is part of a series summarizing an economic article in HHTM’s Journal section entitled Supply and Demand for Audiologists.   If you think we’re down in the weeds again, where Econ 202 posts usually end up, you aren’t wrong. But there is method

by Kelli Marquardt, BS (applied mathematics and economics)  The supply of audiologists in the US is not on track to cover the rising demand in the next 30 years (Windmill & Freeman, 2013, 2017).  This post summarizes on-going economic analyses in a pilot study of the US market for audiologists. The study goals are to establish determinants of supply and

“Peeling the Onion” is a monthly column by Harvey Abrams, PhD.   I received a notice in my mailbox earlier this week informing me that there was $9.75 postage due on a package that my town post office was holding for me. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what it could be.   Mystery Mail   I

  Made for iPhone hearing aids came first and most smart hearing aids are still not “made” for android devices. The Internet of things reachable by hearing aids is limited to a small, picky universe. In the larger universe, my android phone and Samsung washing machine may be having lively discourse, but I’m not privy to their chats via my

Downstream Consequences of Aging is a bi-monthly series written by guest columnist Barbara Weinstein, PhD. The ultimate objective of any health care partnership is to optimize the patient experience during the clinical encounter, improve patient health outcomes and ensure that patient preferences are met or exceeded (Ha & Longnecker, 2010), as discussed in Part 1 of this series. Prerequisites for

by Brian Taylor “Signal & Noise” is a bimonthly column by Brian Taylor, AuD. The first two installments of this series in Signal and Noise column were devoted to the use of some relatively routine clinical measurements as part of the practice of “good audiology”.  The basic message of those previous columns was this: Audiologists and hearing aid dispensers need

by Harvey Abrams, PhD. “Peeling the Onion” is a monthly column by Harvey Abrams, PhD.    Disclaimer: I am a paid consultant to the Hearing Industries Association (HIA) and contributed to the post-workshop filing submitted to the FTC on behalf of HIA which I review in this article. However, the opinions expressed here are entirely mine and do not necessarily

But ya don’t gotta see an audiologist to hear better, if you do it the Costco Way.  That Way is putting pressure on the traditional medical model of hearing aid dispensing, which is under siege from all quarters — Big Boxes, Internet, PSAPs, OTC legislation, Hearables — and is not likely to sustain in its present form and clout for

Audiologists and hearing scientists are familiar with human equal loudness contours (feature image above).  Samsung is too, using those contours in its patent #9635459 to control signal input gain to protect against noise induced hearing loss.    Samsung Exits the Ear to Aid Hearing   Or, better yet, why not fully protect the ear and hearing by skipping the ear altogether,

Downstream Consequences of Aging is a bi-monthly series written by guest columnist Barbara Weinstein, PhD.    A continuous two-way process, communication involves the exchange of both verbal and non-verbal messages. Essential to communication are: the ability of the sender to encode the information, the ability of the recipient to hear, understand, and process the information (aka decode), and the opportunity