‘Enhancing the Patient Experience’
CareCredit, Costa Mesa, Calif, is offering a free educational CD featuring Gyl Kasewurm, AuD. This audio program explains how practices can capture more of the hearing healthcare market by moving from an audiologist-driven to a patient-driven model of care. Some highlights include tips and techniques that practices can use to set themselves apart from the competition; ways to positively affect acceptance of optimal technology by monitoring patient satisfaction; building trust; and developing stronger patient relationships. For more information, contact (800) 300-3046, ext. 4519.

Conferences

Massachusetts Hearing Society
The Massachusetts Hearing Society is hosting The New England Hearing Healthcare Conference at Foxwoods Resort and Casino in Mashantucket, Conn, on November 4-5. All New England hearing healthcare providers are invited. For more information, contact Gary Rachins, BC-HIS, (781) 826-4711.

The Aging Auditory System
VA RR&D National Center for Rehabilitative Auditory Research (NCRAR) will host The Aging Auditory System: Considerations for Rehabilitation on September 22-23 in Portland, Ore. Highlights include a keynote address by Moe Bergman, and speakers Robert Frisina, Sandra Gordon-Salant, James Jerger, Jack Mills, Kathleen Pichora-Fuller, Pamela Souza, Therese Walden, and Arthur Wingfield. For more information, visit www.ncrar.org.

Fellowships

Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
The Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing (AG Bell), Washington, DC, has awarded $15,000 fellowships to 22 cochlear implant centers to help train professionals in the field of cochlear implants and auditory rehabilitation. The fellowships—made possible by grants from the Advanced Bionics Corporation and Cochlear Americas—will fund mentoring and educational development by professionals in the fields of clinical and research audiology, speech-language pathology, auditory-verbal therapy, and the education of deaf or hard of hearing individuals.

Fellowship recipients include: Arizona Ear Center, Phoenix, Ariz; Beth Israel-New York Eye and Ear, New York; Boys Town National Research Hospital Cochlear Implant Program, Omaha, Neb; Calgary Health Region Audiology Services, Calgary, Alberta, Canada; Callier Advanced Hearing Research Center-The University of Texas at Dallas; Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center Division of Pediatric Audiology Cochlear Implant Program, Seattle; Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia; Cochlear Implant Clinic at Integris Baptist Medical Center, Oklahoma City; Columbia University Medical Center, New York; The Hearing Center of Texas Children’s Hospital, Houston; House Ear Institute, Los Angeles; Houston Ear Research Foundation, Houston; Let Them Hear Foundation of the California Ear Institute, East Palo Alto, Calif; Magnolia Speech School, Jackson, Miss; Medical College of Wisconsin—Koss Cochlear Implant Program, Milwaukee; New England Medical Center Cochlear Implant Program, Boston; St Joseph Institute for the Deaf, Chesterfield, Mo; University of Massachusetts Medical Center Sounds of Life Program, Worcester, Mass; University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City, Iowa; University of Michigan Cochlear Implant Program, Ann Arbor, Mich; University of South Carolina Cochlear Implant Center, Columbia, SC; Vanderbilt Bill Wilkerson Center Cochlear Implant Program, Nashville, Tenn.

Acknowledgment

‘Survivor: Palau’
“Survivor: Palau” winner Tom Westman credits his success on the show to the lessons he learned from his 8-year-old daughter, Meghan, who lost her hearing to meningitis at 18 months old.

“Survivor: Palau” winner Tom Westman and his daughter, Meghan.

The Westmans turned to the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Washington, DC, so they could provide their daughter with the same opportunities as other children. They enrolled her in an early intervention program that offered speech therapy to help her learn to listen and talk. When she was 2, she received a cochlear implant.

“As the father of a child who is deaf, nothing is too hard,” Westman said. “When Meghan lost her hearing, we turned to support networks like the Alexander Graham Bell Association for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing to help us through. I took the same approach on ‘Survivor.’ Meghan taught me that you need to be tough and resourceful.”

Volunteerism

Hear Now Leaders
Two Eden Prairie, Minn, teenagers have taken the initiative to take community service to the next level. Andrew Lee, 17, and his sister, Meg, 12, started a Web site that gives children nationwide step-by-step instructions on how to support the Starkey Hearing Foundation’s Hear Now program.

Meg Lee

The Hear Now program allows the Foundation to provide hearing aids to low-income children and adults. The program accepts used hearing aid donations, with the proceeds from the sale of those devices going to the purchase of new hearing instruments that are then distributed through the program.

Andrew Lee

After learning about Hear Now, Andrew and Meg decided to encourage children nationwide to get involved by starting Hear Now programs in their communities. Through the Web site, www.HearNowLeaders.com, children are instructed on how to bring the program to hearing providers in their communities—asking providers to participate in the program by distributing program applications and collecting used hearing aids.