This course is designed as a state-of-the-art update of contemporary audiological practice, addressing a wide range of topics including the areas of hearing science and diagnostics, pediatric specialty, tinnitus management, balance assessment, and amplification. This program is intended as a course for practicing audiologists, however professionals engaged in hearing aid dispensing, audiology graduate students, physicians, and others involved in the management of adults and children with hearing disorders will also benefit. The format consists of lectures presented by renowned faculty from around the country and updates on new technology presented by manufacturer representatives.

Objectives

After attending this course, attendees will be able to:

• Consider how bimodal neuromodulation can fit into a clinical setting for treating tinnitus patients.
• Describe what is meant by evidence-based practice and identify the components of audiological evaluation that are supported by evidence.
• List examples of physical and acoustic facts that do not require evidence-based evaluation.
• Understand the definitions of and differences between resiliency, sustainability, burnout, empathic distress, and moral injury.
• Describe three strategies or practices for promoting individual resiliency in clinical work.
• Understand how to diagnose vestibular migraine and how to use patient-reported outcome measures to quantify symptoms in vestibular migraine.
• Understand the evidence behind different treatment modalities for vestibular migraine.
• Describe the different genetic causes of SNHL and how genetic testing for SNHL is conducted and interpreted.
• Understand the clinical impact of genetic testing for SNHL.
• Define the new 60/60 referral guideline for cochlear implant evaluation referrals (Zwolan et al., 2020) and identify three groups of patients who meet the recently expanded FDA CI candidacy criteria.
• Describe a typical hearing loss profile that meets electro-acoustic (EAS, hybrid) CI candidacy.
• List elements of the proposed (or finalized) FDA rule.
• Compare and contrast methods of integrating OTC HAs and other direct to consumer amplifiers into an audiology practice.
• Describe pathways of care for patients.
• Identify how the COVID-19 virus that causes hearing loss/tinnitus and/or balance problems and the degree and types of hearing loss that could occur.
• Decide and interpret which audiometric tests (objective and subjective) are appropriate for COVID-19 survivors and what test results are for patients who report ‘brain fog.’
• Informed of the advantages of an ultrasound hearing aid compared to current hearing aid technologies, along with animal data to support its potential for hearing applications.
• Recognize how diabetes affects the auditory system as well as plan a hearing screening and monitoring program for patients with diabetes.
• Describe benefits to regular collaborative, interdisciplinary care of D/HH children, including key checkpoints for teams in a child’s journey.
• Describe the effective communication strategies and tools to help optimize hearing and communication during encounters.

Course Outline