Oticon’s Henning Falster, who organizes the camp each year with Schum, takes a moment to enjoy the mountain setting with Marija Mihelich and Gallaudet University’s Cynthia Compton. |
When you’re at an altitude of 11,000 feet, it might seem only natural to find people with their “heads in the clouds.” However, the Fifth Annual Oticon Audiology Summer Camp, which brought together about 70 graduate students from 30 different universities, set out to dispel the common myths regarding advanced hearing instruments and provide a panoramic perspective of “real world” audiology.
This year’s Summer Camp guest faculty members were Cynthia Compton, PhD, of Gallaudet University, Anne Marie Tharpe, PhD, of Vanderbilt University, and Jack Adams, MS, a private practice audiologist from Cape Coral, Fla. Compton provided ideas on assessing the full communication needs of various patient populations. She also detailed important assistive device technologies and offered general advice on their applications. Tharpe addressed the testing and fitting of infants and young children. She detailed many of her clinical experiences, as well as published studies in the field, regarding pediatric assessment and the decisions involved when fitting youngsters with hearing aids. Adams provided an entrepreneur’s view of establishing and growing a hearing care practice from a marketing and business perspective.
Oticon’s Donald Schum addresses the topic of non-linear fitting rationales |
Anne Marie Tharpe of Vanderbilt University provides an update on pediatric case management. |
Private practice audiologist Jack Adams provides a business/marketing perspective. |
Oticon Vice-President of Audiology and Professional Relations Donald Schum, PhD, addressed topics on the inherent challenges and trade-offs that audiologists face on a regular basis, advanced hearing instruments, noise control and speech enhancement strategies, special fitting populations, and fitting the elderly. Vice-President of Sales Jim Kothe, MS, provided information on the structure of the hearing care market, where new technology may be headed, and trends for the future. During a “Career Decision-Making” session, the faculty shared their career experiences in the multifaceted fields of audiology. The camp also offered many fun events, including the annual “Olympics” featuring tug-of-war and frisbee toss competitions. Other events included dinners, get-togethers, and a visit to a gold mine.
About 70 graduate students attended this year’s Oticon Audiology Summer Camp in Keystone, Colo. The annual program offers graduate students practical seminars and workshops on hearing aid testing, fitting, and counseling, as well as career and business/marketing ideas for budding entrepreneurs and clinicians alike. |
Audiology Summer Camp faculty included (top row, l to r) Henning Falster, Jack Adams, Donald Schum, Creig Dunckel, Curtis Williams; (middle row) Cynthia Compton, Danielle Tyranski, Randi Pogash, Maureen Doty, Eleanor Wilson; (bottom row) Anne Marie Tharpe, Ellen Kessler, Lisa Perhacs, and Linda Carr-Kraft. |
The 2003 Audiology Summer Camp will be held August 2-7 in Keystone. For more information and/or an application for attending, visit the summer camp Web page at www.oticonus.com/summercamp.
