We are definitely in the 21st century!

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Compared with other well-established fields, audiology is a relative newcomer. Its roots grew out of the field of experimental psychology with names such as S.S. Stevens, Raymond Carhart, Hallowell Davis, Harvey Fletcher, and Jim Jerger. Unfortunately, we just heard of the passing of Dr. Jim Jerger and Dr. Charles (Chuck) Berlin- we have two items about them and their great contributions to our field in the Industry News section of CanadianAudiologist.ca.

Until recently, the field of audiology was still stuck in the 20th century- although interesting, the questions that we addressed in the 1990s reflected our roots from the 1940s and 1950s. However, this is rapidly changing. This issue of CanadianAudiologist begins with a feature article by Eric Bielefeld called “The 21st century has taught us a great deal about noise-induced hearing loss”. With modern assessment and analysis techniques, we have much better insights than an almost 20-year-old article that Dr. Eric Bielefeld was involved in from 2006. He writes “Reflecting back on that article, it is startling to think about how much has changed in the area of NIHL, but also how much of what we knew in the early part of the century is still relevant today.”

Early headlines on the connections between age-related cognitive decline and sensory declines appeared in the 1990s. However, the causal mechanisms underpinning these correlations are still unknown and we need to be very careful about what can be concluded from various studies. Dr. Kathy Pichora-Fuller and Dr. Paul Mick delve into this with their article “The risks of explaining hearing loss as a potentially modifiable risk factor for dementia” (and also a great column “What’s new about getting older” by Kathy about what audiologists should know about vision loss as a newly recognized potentially modified risk factor for dementia).

And, perhaps the “100 years war” may be finally coming to an end. This colloquial phrase touches on whether the use of sign language has a negative, a positive, or neutral effect on the acquisition of spoken language. Dr. Jo Deluzio discusses this in her excellent article “Spoken language versus Sign Language: are we still stuck in this binary?”

Our two regular features “To the Brain and Back” and “Striking the Right Balance” also reminds us that we are now in the 21st century. Dr. Paul’s article “Measuring the brain’s response to continuous natural speech” is a topic we could not have delved into back in the last century. “Striking the Right Balance” goes beyond vertigo and dizziness in their contribution “Its not just a vestibular loss”.

And if you didn’t think that the field of audiology has entered the 21st century, we would like to introduce a new column for CanadianAudiologist called “Sound Business Sense”… about sound business sense! Dr. Bob Traynor has agreed to become our newest columnist to CanadianAudiologist. Bob, not only is a well-respected audiologist, but also has an MBA and has written extensively on financial issues relating to all aspects of Audiology. While it is important to stay abreast of the technical and counselling issues in the field of Audiology, the financial elements that sit in the background can be just as important to the well-being and longevity of the clinic and our care for our clients. A clinic that cannot make payroll will be a disservice to their clientele who may not be able to obtain required services and product updates.

We hope that you enjoy this new issue of CanadianAudiologist and hope to see you at the CAA annual conference in Kelowna, British Columbia from October 6-9.

Marshall Chasin, AuD,
Editor-in-Chief
CanadianAudiologist

About the Editor in Chief
Marshall Chasin, AuD

Marshall Chasin, AuD, Doctor of Audiology, Editor in Chief

Marshall is the director of research at the Musicians' Clinics of Canada and has presented and published extensively on the topics of hearing loss prevention in musicians and hearing aids for music.

Other than being the editor in chief of Canadian Audiologist, Marshall Chasin writes a regular column in the Hearing Review called Back to Basics. Some of these columns are reprinted in this issue of Canadian Audiologist with permission of the Hearing Review.