Need to Know
Welcome back to the Pulse Tone! This is the second installment of the New Professional’s e-newsletter. You can find the last installment here. We know you are busy and receive many emails so we promise to keep this short but informative.
Wait a second—who is “we”?
“We” is the New Professionals Committee. We’ve been around for a few years now, and are tasked with identifying and promoting the needs of new professionals (NPs) within the Academy. Communication is a two-way street, and we want to improve our connections with all of our fellow NPs.
Wondering how to get involved with the Academy? Sign-in to the Audiology Community, and under the “Volunteer” tab, “current volunteer opportunities” for a listing of all that is available. A call for volunteers is happening now – applications close Friday, June 1. Check it out or view the Academy’s volunteer page for more information.
AAA 2018
Will you be at AAA 2018, April 18-21, in Nashville? The conference has a lot of offer New Professionals:
The New Professionals in Audiology Conference, taking place on Wednesday, April 18, 8:00 am–12:00 pm, will provide an engaging opportunity for new professionals to develop leadership skills. You must be registered for AAA 2018 to attend this event – no additional costs apply. Sponsored in part by Phonak, LLC.
Speak Up, Speak Out is another event, which will also be held during AAA 2018, and is designed to allow new professionals to meet, discuss, and hear from a panel of experts with a wide range of experience. Don’t miss this event on Thursday, April 19, 1:30-3:00 pm! Experts include:
- Kari Morgenstein, AuD, PASC – Assistant Professor and Director of the Children’s Hearing Program in the Department of Otolaryngology at University of Miami.
- Gail M. Whitelaw, PhD – Clinical faculty and clinic director of the Department of Speech and Hearing Science at The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH.
- Tricia Nechodom, AuD, PASC – Audiologist at Trinity Health in Minot, ND and Adjunct Professor at Minot State University.
- Kaitlyn Kennedy, AuD – Pediatric Audiologist at Cook Children’s in Fort Worth, Texas and also committee chair of the New Professionals Committee
Have You Heard?
- Early in March 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that 1 in 10 people are at risk of disabling hearing loss (which means more than 900 million people!) by the year 2050. This is a large increase from the estimated 466 million people who are currently affected by disabling hearing loss. The WHO’s Department of Prevention of Deafness and Hearing Loss say that while the number is expected to increase primarily due to the growing and aging population. However, they counsel that there are many factors besides aging that affect hearing and are advocates of preventing hearing loss from noise exposure and infectious diseases encountered in childhood.
- Audiologists must be prepared to understand and answer questions regarding the differences between hearing aids and over-the-counter (OTC) devices. This is especially important for new audiologists who are entering the field during the inception of OTC devices. Make sure you read The Guide to Hearing Aids, PSAPs, Hearables, and OTC Devices, published by AAA to help audiologists understand the difference between the various hearing devices. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved a feature that would allow for remote programming of Cochlear Americas Nucleus CIs in patients who have had more than 6 months of cochlear implant experience and are comfortable with the programming process. Data evaluated by the FDA showed no significant difference in performance between in-person and remote programming. The FDA additionally evaluated cybersecurity measures for the remote connection and patient perception of their experience with remote programming prior to granting the approval.
New Professionals Spotlight
This is our continuing segment on highlighting new professionals and their career paths! For our third and fourth spotlights, we’d like to introduce you to Chris Cox, AuD and Hanna Tarsunova Page, AuD.
Do you have a new professional friend you would like to see us put in the spotlight next time? Shoot us an email with your suggestion!
Other News Bytes
Check out our News Bytes section of the New Professionals web page. We are releasing monthly articles about topics of interest to NPs and beyond.
That’s it! You made it to the end of this newsletter and hopefully you learned something useful! We would love to hear from you, please consider the following:
- Contact us
- Answer two questions for us, ask a question of us
- Visit the NP portion of the Academy website
We welcome your feedback! Please feel free to reach out.
