WASHINGTON, DC — From Better Hearing Institute (BHI) Executive Director Sergei Kochkin, PhD:

In our January 4th BHI newsletter, we announced our intent to further validate the BHI Quick Hearing Check with the help of Ruth Bentler, PhD. We have received commitments to enter about 1,000 audiograms and speech test scores from hearing care professionals along with our Quick Hearing Check score. Please be advised that our request for this information is HIPAA compliant in that we do not ask for patient identifying information. We would like a sample size of about 5,000 subjects for this study and encourage hearing care professionals to participate at the following site: www.betterhearing.org/audiogram.

If we can demonstrate the utility of the Quick Hearing Check in predicting objective measures of hearing loss, I am confident that we can get the attention of the medical community to incorporate this instrument during physical exams.

We will be providing five $100 prizes in a sweepstakes at the end of the data collection phase that we have extended through April 2008. We will accept audiograms up to 3 months old.

The Quick Hearing Check can be conducted online at www.betterhearing.org. If you need a pad of Quick Hearing Check (50) and will commit to at least 25 audiograms, we will be glad to send you a complimentary pad. Simply e-mail Micah Spangler (mspangler@betterhearing.org) with your name and address.