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Thursday Keynote Address | Friday Keynote Address | Saturday Keynote Address
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Thursday Keynote Address
Optimizing Auditory Benefit for Individuals With Severe/Profound Hearing Loss
Margaret W. Skinner
11:00 am-12:00 noon
Georgia World Congress Center
Room B 308-309
Margaret W. Skinner, of the Washington University School of Medicine Dept. of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery in St. Louis, Missouri, will present the 2002 Opening Audiology Keynote Address.
Entitled “Optimizing Auditory Benefit for Individuals With Severe/Profound Hearing Loss,” Dr. Skinner’s address will discuss the different aspects of an individual’s residual hearing that need to be matched by adjusting hearing aid or cochlear implant parameters. To optimize benefit from hearing aids or a cochlear implant, sound processing parameters must be matched to an individual’s hearing. This matching requires parameter choices that make soft sounds audible, loud sounds not too loud, and all sound as clear as possible. These adjustments plus aural rehabilitation help the individual discover how to converse effectively.
A highly sought-after grant consultant, researcher, and honored professional, Dr. Skinner’s career has focused equally on hearing aids and cochlear implants, clinical service, and research. She is also a prolific author and lecturer who has more than 62 publications and many lectures to her credit.
“I think one of the unique parts of our work is that we intertwine clinical delivery and service with research. We utilize every shred of information to help make decisions about which ear to implant, when to implant, and what kind of processing strategy to use.”
An important aspect of her hearing aid research findings was that for high intensity speech, not much compensation for the higher frequencies was needed because it was loud enough. However, for very low levels, substantial compensation for the high frequencies was needed. Another finding, with linear amplification, demonstrated that the broader the bandwidth a listener is provided, the better he or she will be able to understand speech. This finding led to the expansion of hearing aid bandwidth.
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Friday Keynote Address
Irv Hochberg Memorial Lecture
Audiology and Communications Technology: A Symbiotic Relationship
Harry Levitt
8:00 am-9:00 am
Georgia World Congress Center
Room B 308-309
The Friday Keynote Address for the Audiology Convention at ASHA will be the Irv Hochberg Memorial Lecture by Harry Levitt, of the City University of New York, on Audiology and Communications Technology: A Symbiotic Relationship.
Necessity is the mother of invention. Communications technology is the favored child of our need to communicate. Audiology, born of the need to measure hearing and help people with hearing loss, is a poor cousin. The two offspring are nevertheless of assistance to each other. Although Audiology is usually regarded as the younger offspring, benefiting from the many advances made by communications technology, there are instances when audiologically driven advances have been of value to larger, more mature technologies.
A key advance in the development of the telephone, for example, resulted from A.G. Bell’s work on developing an instrument for teaching speech to the deaf. The audiometer and hearing aid resulted from the invention of electronic amplifiers for radio and telephony; the need for small, wearable hearing aids that were also physically robust led to the development of miniature electronic components that have since found a wealth of applications outside conventional communications technology. Similarly, digital techniques developed for more efficient coding and transmission of speech signals spurred the development of digital hearing aids; the need for cosmetically acceptable hearing aids of very small size spurred the development of low voltage, low power digital signal processors.
The symbiotic relationship continues: Although for the most part Audiology benefits from advances in computer and communications technology, the special needs of Audiology often result in technological advances of mutual benefit.
In Honor of Irving Hochberg
Our friend and deeply admired colleague, Dr. Irving Hochberg, devoted much of his professional life to preparing students for teaching and research careers in communication sciences and disorders and for clinical practice in the professions of audiology and speech-language pathology. In his role as chief executive officer of the graduate program at City University of New York, he used his scholarship, intellectual leadership, and administrative genius to develop one of the top doctoral programs in the nation. He participated directly in the education of many of this academic discipline’s national leaders. His infectious good will, quick wit, warm personality, and educated palate touched many of our lives on a very personal level. He unabashedly contended that life was too short for cheap wine. To many of us, Irv was a substantial human being, a beloved friend and colleague. Irv’s unstinting commitment and dedication to the highest standards of academic preparation for doctoral programs in our discipline set a standard for other programs to emulate. His perspectives are well reflected in his publications and in the many formal presentations he made before the Council of Academic Programs in Communications Sciences and Disorders and at American Speech-Language-Hearing Association-sponsored conferences. He often articulated the importance of a good scientific background for entry into our field and to basic and applied research as the sine qua non for the future of the discipline of communication sciences and disorders.
An excerpt from Fred D. Minifie’s tribute to Irving Hochberg in his memory as part of the ASHA Foundation’s Dreams and Possibilities Campaign.
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Saturday Keynote Address
Otitis Media: Unanswered Questions and Future Direction
David J. Lim, MD
8:00 am-9:00 am
Georgia World Congress Center
Room 308-309
ASHA is pleased to welcome David J. Lim, MD, to present the Saturday Audiology Keynote Address on Otitis Media: Unanswered Questions and Future Direction. Dr. Lim is Executive Vice President and Research Head of the Gonda Department of Cell and Molecular Biology at House Ear Institute in Los Angeles; Professor Emeritus, Ohio State University College of Medicine; and Adjunct Professor, Department of Cell and Neurobiology, University of California, Los Angeles.
For more than 30 years, Dr. Lim has served on numerous editorial boards, national and international committees and boards, and is a long-standing member of many professional associations in the speech and hearing fields. Dr. Lim has published over 200 scientific papers, authored 15 chapters, and edited or co-edited 18 proceedings, conference reports, and scientific books. He has received many research grants and holds 2 U.S. patents.
Otitis media (OM) is the most common childhood infectious disease, second only to the common cold. Antibiotic resistance is increasing at an alarming rate in the bacteria that cause OM; there is an urgent need to develop effective vaccines and/or innovative therapies. Dr. Lim will summarize recent advances in OM research that may be relevant to audiologists and speech-language pathologists.
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