Currently viewing Vol. 11 • Issue 4 • 2024

Todd the Translational Researcher

By Marshall Chasin, AuD Steve Aiken, PhD Erin Picou, AuD., PhD, CCC-A Clarence Odbody, Angel (2nd Class)

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From time to time, CanadianAudiologist.ca dedicates a special issue to someone in our field who has devoted their life to research that betters the lives of hard-of-hearing people. But for this, we thought we would take a page out of Frank Capra’s 1942 movie with Jimmy Stewart called It’s a Wonderful Life.  In this movie, Clarence Odbody, Angel Second Class - helps the Jimmy Stewart character to learn what life in Bedford Falls would have been like if he had never existed. So… we asked Clarence Odbody to help us write this Preamble.

Without Dr. Todd Ricketts we wouldn’t know as much as we do about directionality’s role in improving the SNR for hard-of-hearing people. We also wouldn’t know as much about compression and its settings for various types of hearing loss. And we wouldn’t know nearly as much as we do about the bandwidth of hearing aids for various audiometric configurations. Millions of patients still struggle with sub-optimal hearing aids because their audiologists would not have learned master techniques from Todd in a classroom or a hands-on hearing aid workshop.

Todd’s research is translational- based on his work, we have well-defined research-based recommendations on how to set the bandwidth of a hearing aid for any number of hearing loss configurations, along with the correct setting of the WDRC as well as how this all interacts with gain, output, and the microphones’ directional settings.

Todd is also a friend who encourages his students and colleagues and supports them in their endeavours. He is omnipresent at audiology conferences and, for good reason, is the centre of attention both at the academic and social parts.

Without Todd we may still be fitting omni-directional linear hearing aids with the same frequency response for all types of hearing losses.

Thank you, Todd, for being in our field.

Sincerely,

Marshall Chasin, AuD
Steve Aiken, PhD
Erin Picou, AuD., PhD, CCC-A
Clarence Odbody, Angel (2nd Class)

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.

Steve Aiken, PhD

Steve Aiken is an associate professor at the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders and the Departments of Surgery, Psychology and Neuroscience at Dalhousie University. He received a master’s degree in Audiology from the University of Western Ontario and a PhD in Medical Science from the University of Toronto. He is a past-president of the Canadian Academy of Audiology, founder of the Canadian Infant Hearing Task Force, associate editor of Canadian Audiologist, and co-chair of the Canadian Hearing and Auditory Research Translation group.

Erin Picou, AuD., PhD, CCC-A

Erin Picou, AuD., PhD, CCC-A, is an associate professor in the Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. She has been working in the Dan Maddox Hearing Aid Research Laboratory since she was an AuD student. After completing her Ph.D. (also at Vanderbilt) she was hired to a research faculty position. She now directs the Hearing and Affect Perception Interest (HAPI) laboratory, which focuses on speech recognition, listening effort, and emotional perception for adults and school-aged children. This work continues to be supported through a variety of industry and federal funding sources. In addition to her research activities, Erin is involved with teaching and mentoring clinical and research graduates. Erin is currently serving as section editor for the American Journal of Audiology and Ear and Hearing.

Clarence Odbody, Angel (2nd Class)

Clarence Odbody was once a human male who lived during the 18th century and was a clock maker. Upon his death, he became an Angel second class, which is a human who becomes an angel, but hasn’t yet earned their wings. After some two centuries of doing valiant work, Clarence finally obtained his wings.