Audiology Rocks: AAA Returns to Salt Lake City for Its 16th Annual Convention
The American Academy of Audiology (AAA) held its 16th annual convention at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City on March 31-April 3, drawing 5,610 attendees to the 4-day event. This year’s convention theme was “Audiology Rocks,” which reflected the upbeat mood of the profession, as well as Salt Lake City’s rugged surroundings.

AAA President Brad Stach addressed the General Assembly on the need for professional autonomy, direct access to hearing health care, and appropriate models of professional education.

While convention attendance was down slightly from the year before (mostly due to international attendees), the convention hall, feature sessions, and educational seminars were well attended. This year’s exhibit hall featured more than 185 companies, universities, and associations that consumed a convention hall that was about three times the size of the exhibit space used during the 1996 AAA convention in Salt Lake City.

Ann Ryun, consumer advocate, author, and wife of Congressman Jim Ryun (R-KS), provided a lively inside glimpse into her husband’s career as an Olympic runner who had a severe hearing impairment. Both Ryuns have been steadfast champions of hearing care issues in Washington.

AAA President Brad Stach, PhD, called for a renewed emphasis on professional autonomy during the AAA General Assembly. He says that professional autonomy hinges on its credentials which are based in state licensure, and audiologists need to be recognized by the government for the wide range of services they perform. Stach says that AAA continues to spearhead the effort to provide consumers with direct access to audiologists. The Hearing Health Accessibility Act, sponsored by representative Jim Ryun (R-KS) and Representative Lois Capps (D-CA), would allow for reimbursement of Medicare recipients without referral from a physician. With numerous co-sponsors, this legislation would allow Medicare beneficiaries the option of going directly to a qualified audiologist for hearing and balance diagnostic services. Medicare currently requires that beneficiaries with hearing loss or balance disorders obtain a physician referral before seeing an audiologist.

Mike Eruzione, the captain of the 1980 US Olympic Hockey Team which staged the “Miracle on Ice” by defeating the Soviet Union’s heavily favored team, gave the keynote address at the General Assembly.

Stach also addressed the need for appropriate models of education in audiology. The reclamation of the PhD—the research degree in audiology which has suffered a decline in numbers of graduates—will be an important part of AAA’s future educational goals, says Stach. He lauded the efforts of universities in the pursuit of transitioning the field of audiology to a professional doctorate: “Many programs have retailored their programs to reflect [the new challenging standards],” says Stach, “and many have exceeded the standards that are required.” AAA has recently convened a conference on fourth-year audiology externship that is designed to provide some consensus regarding practical dispensing and education matters, and Stach says he has great hope for resolving the issues at hand.

AAA President-elect Richard Gans, who assumes the role of Academy president in July, outlined six “guideposts” to professional autonomy for AAA.

However, Stach says two “dark clouds” loom over audiology. He expressed growing concern that there are a number of “repackaged masters degree programs” that threaten to water down and denigrate the AuD credential. He also said that the recent Wall Street Journal article (see April HR News, p. 10) was offensive to the profession in that it portrayed professional services as being a superfluous activity rather than a vital component in the hearing remediation process. “[The article] implies that we’re treating only the ear and not the patient,” says Stach.

AAA President-elect Richard Gans said that, since the Academy’s inception, the road to professional autonomy has been full of bumps and curves. He set forth “six guideposts” to professional autonomy that include:

• The AuD should be the single designator of clinical professionals;
• The profession needs to have the ability to regulate its own practices; if the profession does not regulate itself, says Gans, the government will.
• AuD education must be consistent, and academic programs should be expected to follow firm guidelines that place consumers, students and the profession above everything else;
• Audiology needs to have its own university-accrediting body.
• Audiologists need to be fairly reimbursed for their services, and the profession needs audiology and management CPT codes which reflect current practices.
• Legislation relative to how audiologists are defined is critical for the future of the profession. The development of model licensure language independent from other professions remains a priority.

Gans says that the support of the AAA PAC is key to gaining ground in legislative initiatives related to autonomy and reimbursement.

Academy Honors
The Academy honored 7 distinguished audiologists and researchers for their career achievements. George Miller, PhD, of Princeton University, received the Career Award in Hearing for his research in speech intelligibility. Serving on the faculties of Harvard, MIT, Rockefeller University, and Princeton, much of what we know about speech production, perception, and lexical information storage has originated from Miller’s work. His book, Language and Communication, is widely credited with establishing psycholinguistics as an independent field of psychology. His books Language and Perception, The Science of Words, and the online lexical database WordNet have been widely used by researchers in this field.

Craig W. Newman, PhD, head of audiology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, was presented with the Jerger Career Award for Research in Audiology. Newman has published over 90 important articles on numerous topics within the field of audiology, and his work in evidence-based research and on developing protocols to determine the functional status of patients is widely utilized by clinicians. He and his colleagues have developed tools that include the Hearing Handicap Inventory, Tinnitus Hearing Inventory, and the Dizziness Handicap Inventory.

Michael Gorga, PhD, and Patricia Stelmachowicz, PhD, of the Boys Town National Rearch Hospital in Omaha were awarded the AAA Research Achievement Award. Gorga has over 100 publications in the area of electrophysiology and is a world authority on OAEs and ABRs; the normative data he generated are widely used by manufacturers of these diagnostic devices. His systematic investigation of the effects of stimulus parameters on the electrophysiologic response has led to the establishment of rigorous clinical protocols for testing that are used in clinics around the world. Stelmachowicz has been director of Audiological Services at Boys Town for more than 20 years, and has over 80 publications relating to pediatric audiology. Her research and ideas have challenged conventional thoughts about amplification for children, and she continues to apply her highly methodical and systematic approach to her clinical research.

Patricia McCarthy, PhD, of Rush University Medical School received the Clinical Educator Award. McCarthy has made a significant impact on students at the University of Denver, North Chicago VA Medical Center, University of Georgia, as well as at Rush University. Additionally, her book, Rehabilitative Audiology: Children and Adults, which she co-authored with Jerome Alpiner, PhD, remains one of the most authoritative texts in the field of aural rehabilitation.

Brian Moore, PhD, of the University of Cambridge (England) received the AAA International Award in Hearing. Moore has made large contributions in our understanding about how hearing aids function relative to the physiology of the ear. In the 1970s, he worked on the ear and brain’s ability to perceive speech through single-channel devices, and in the 1980s, he developed and evaluated hearing aid signal processing schemes. In the 1990s, Moore investigated DSP hearing aids, then turned his focus on cochlear dead regions in 2000. His “Ten Test”, which is designed to assess for cochlear dead zones, is only one example of his work being applied to clinical use.

The AAA Humanitarian Award was presented to David McPherson, PhD, audiology department head at Brigham Young University. McPherson is a well-known researcher with over 50 publications on topics including cochlear function, auditory evoked potentials, and cognitive auditory responses. However, his role in worldwide humanitarian projects and as a mentor to international students is less known. McPherson has worked in Mexico on Project Hope, as well as helped develop hearing and newborn screening programs in Russia, Poland, and Vietnam. He has also assisted and taken into his home a number of international students who are in need of help.

Additionally, 6 AAA Presidential Distinguished Service Awards were presented by Stach to Craig Johnson, Tomi Browne, Paul Pessis, Dick Danielson, Theresa Walden, and Barry Freeman.

New Academy Appointments
The Academy also announced the results of its recent elections. Gail Whitelaw was elected to the office of president-elect effective July 1, 2004. Whitelaw is clinic director of the Department of Speech and Hearing Science at The Ohio State University in Columbus. She has been serving on the Academy Board of Directors since 2001 and was Program Chair for Convention 2004 in Salt Lake City. Whitelaw’s professional career has focused on university-related activities and political and legislative issues related to audiology. Her clinical interests include auditory processing disorders in children and adults, as well as pediatric audiology. Following her term as president-elect, Whitelaw will assume the office of president on July 1, 2005 for a one-year term.

Craig W. Newman, Paul Pessis, and Helena Stern Solodar were elected to the AAA Board of Directors for a 3-year term. Newman is the Audiology Section Head of the Department of Otolaryngology and Communicative Disorders for The Cleveland Clinic Foundation. He is a prolific author and researcher with more than 20 years experience working in major medical centers and is a recipient of this year’s Jerger Career Award for Research in Audiology. Pessis is president of the North Shore Audio-Vestibular Lab in Highland Park and Long Grove, Ill and has been active in issues of diagnostic audiology, reimbursement matters, governmental affairs, and community outreach projects for state and national professional associations. Solodar is the president/owner of Audiological Consultants or Atlanta, Inc. and Audiological Consultants of Atlanta-Buckhead, Inc. with 6 office locations in Atlanta. Solodar has been a leader in audiology private practice issues and marketing activities for nearly 25 years.

Next Year
The 17th annual AAA convention will be held in Washington, DC, on April 6-9. For more information, visit the AAA Web site at www.audiology.org, or contact the organization at (800) 222-2336.