BB Gun Season
It's the holiday shopping season and many of us are making our gift lists for friends and family. At the same time, we are doing much more than just making a list. We are thinking about things like: Should we get Ralphie a Red Ryder carbine-action 200 shot range model air rifle? Hmmm, it may be too dangerous, as he might "shoot his eye out". Maybe we should just send Ralphie some Pink Bunny Pajamas. What about Dad? Do you think that Dad would like a leg lamp? We could get dad a new bowling ball.
Even if you're not a fan of the movie "A Christmas Story," you are asking yourself similar questions about the products that you are buying. There is one thing that we almost always think about when buying gifts or other products, brand.
A Season of Brand Awareness
Brand impacts us each time we make a purchase and more importantly, when we make a related purchase. What do we do when we want to buy a new flavor of toothpaste, a bigger flat screen television, or a new or used car? We think about brand. I have purchased products from Colgate, Sony, Chevy before, so I am going to trust that this new product will work as well as other products from the same company/brand. As audiologists, we do this on a daily basis when selecting and recommending hearing aids for our patients.
This gets into one of our feature articles by Expert Contributor Earl Johnson, Ph.D., What is important to Audiologists and Their Individual Choice when Dispensing a Hearing Aid Brand. I do not want to give away too much, but based on the individuals that Dr. Johnson surveyed, most audiologists (71.4%) dispense the majority of their hearing aids from a single brand, and on average they change preferred brand every 4.5 years with less experienced audiologists changing preference every 2 years. Dr. Johnson goes into more detail, but especially at this time of year, I found this an interesting read. As a side note, this article is CEU eligible and is also available in a recorded course version.
CEUs are In Season
One last reminder. Many of you get into a bind for end of year CEUs. Never fear! AudiologyOnline is your best answer. While we have live courses every week, we have a library of hundreds of text-based and recorded courses that you can access 24/7. Best of all, you can earn Unlimited CEUs for these AudiologyOnline sponsored courses for only $99 through our CEU Total Access Program. Take a look at a small sampling of recent features and submissions from our Contributing Experts. Many of these items are CEU eligible!
Gabrielle Saunders, Ph.D., Clinical Applications of the Performance Perceptual Test- This course will provide a description of the Performance-Perceptual Test (PPT), its background, and how to run it using the Hearing in Noise Test system. Case examples will also be provided to illustrate how results from the PPT can be used in during the hearing aid counseling process.
Lisa Lucks Mendel, Ph.D., Hearing Aid Outcome - Subjective and Objective Measures - Objective and subjective outcome measures used in hearing aid evaluations are reviewed and their incorporation into clinical practice is encouraged. Current evidence on the effectiveness of such measures is introduced.
Interview with Patricia Kricos, Ph.D.
Current Topics in Audiologic Rehabilitation
Happy Holidays
Finally, on behalf of everyone here at AudiologyOnlline, I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Holiday season and a Merry Christmas. We feel lucky to serve such a great profession. Look for more in 2009, we hope to continue to serve you as the brand of choice for online education and information. Please be sure to take the time to view the additional AO news and information links listed to the right of this email and on our home page, and as always, thanks for reading.
Best regards,
Paul Dybala, Ph.D. - Audiologist
President & Editor-in-Chief, Audiology Online
P.S. - Don't forget - Around the Web in 60 Seconds! Wonder how the rest of the world looks at the topics of audiology, hearing loss and hearing aids? The current edition of "Around the Web" (ATW) includes: vitamins & hearing loss, first a bionic ear now a bionic eye, infrared hearing implants, radio and hearing aids, noisy toys and lightning causes hearing loss. Read about these and other stories in the latest edition of ATW
