A new book from Plural Publishing, Modern Hearing Aids: Verification, Outcome Measures, and Follow-Up, focuses on the selection and fitting of hearing aids and the outcome procedures and measures that follow.

Modern Hearing Aids According to the publisher, world-renowned authors Ruth Bentler, PhD, H. Gustav Mueller, PhD, and Todd A. Ricketts, PhD, provide guidance for selecting prescriptive fitting approaches and detailed protocols for the use of behavioral measures and real-ear speech mapping to both verify fitting and assess special hearing aid features. Extensive discussion is included regarding the techniques, procedures, and test protocols for probe-microphone measures. The authors also included numerous post-fitting tests that can be conducted, along with step-by-step protocols for their administration and scoring. Follow-up care and auditory training options also are reviewed.

Written in an easy-to-read style, this text includes reference information, and tools supported by research and clinical experience. The information is presented in a way that is both accessible to clinical students with little experience in the field, yet with enough depth for even the serious hearing aid researcher.

The contents include paragraphs on “Technical Tips,” “Key Concepts,” and more. There is a humorous “Endnotes” section at the back of the book with interesting tidbits of information that were not quite relevant enough to be incorporated into the book’s chapters, but were too good to toss aside. The chapters cover Evidence-Based Practice; Electroacoustic (and Other) Quality Control Techniques; Corrections, Conversions, and Calculations; Prescriptive Formulas and Programming; Behavioral Assessment During Clinical Fittings; Probe-Microphone Measures: Rationale and Procedures; Probe Microphone Clinical Uses; Hearing Aid Orientation and Troubleshooting; Auditory Rehabilitation, and Validation: Self-Report Outcomes.

The authors are well-respected experts in the field. Dr Ruth Bentler is professor and chair in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of Iowa. Dr H. Gustav Mueller is a professor of audiology at Vanderbilt University and holds faculty positions with the University of Northern Colorado and Rush University. He is the senior audiology consultant for Siemens Hearing Instruments and contributing editor for AudiologyOnline. Dr Todd A. Ricketts is a professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, the director of graduate studies in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, and the director of the Dan Maddox Hearing Aid Research Laboratory.

Source: Plural Publishing Inc