HIA Elects New Board Members at Annual Meeting

Washington, DC, March 15, 2012 - Hearing Industries Association (HIA) elected two new members to its Board of Directors at its Meeting of the Members on March 1 and also reelected four others whose terms were expiring in 2012. Scott Davis, Siemens Hearing Instruments, and Jake Haycock, Widex USA, were newly elected to the Board, and Todd Murray, GN ReSound;Mike Orscheln, Phonak;Randy Raymond, Spectrum Brands;and Jerry Ruzicka, Starkey Hearing Technologies, were re-elected to new two year terms. They rejoin Peer Lauritsen, Oticon;Jeff Taylor, Sonion;Robert Tong, ON Semiconductor;and Gordon Walker, Knowles Electronics, who continue on the Board with terms that extend through 2013. The HIA Executive Committee continues in the second year of its term with Murray as HIA Chair, Orscheln as Vice Chair, Tong as Secretary/Treasurer, Ruzicka as Past Chair and Rogin as President.



(Left to right: Randy Raymond, Peer Lauritsen, Carole Rogin, Jake Haycock, Jeff Taylor, Todd Murray, Robert Tong, Jerry Ruzicka, Scott Davis and Mike Orscheln)

Focus on Hearing Aids at HIA's Annual Meeting

The HIA Annual Meeting, held Feb. 29 - March 1, featured presentations by government officials, a marketing expert, a political analyst and representatives of allied hearing health organizations. HIA also held its annual Meeting of the Members on March 1 to elect new Board members and review the organization's achievements in 2011 and its focus for the coming year.

During the Annual Meeting, Srinivas "Nandu" Nandkumar, PhD, Chief of the ENT Devices Branch, U.S. Food and Drug Administration, reviewed the current status of FDA's regulation of hearing aids including the classification of wireless hearing aids, mail-order and internet sales of hearing aids, and the Agency's regulatory concerns related to the unrestricted direct-to-consumer marketing model for selling hearing aids. He also discussed the agency's position in relation to the regulation and marketing of hearing aids versus personal sound amplifiers (PSAPs), and fielded numerous questions from attendees regarding the Agency's view of the DTC on-line hearing aid model and increasingly aggressive marketing efforts by sellers of PSAPs.

Also during the meeting, Lucille Beck, PhD, U.S Veteran's Administration, provided a comprehensive update of the VA's Hearing Aid Program, with a focus on the continued growth and expansion of that program as well as the agency's emphasis on top quality technology and forward-looking, innovative, and veteran-focused service. She noted that the VA Audiology program handled 134,000 veterans per month, and treated over 756,000 unique veterans in FY2011 which represented a 10 percent increase from FY2010. She also reviewed the agency's expanding efforts related to telerehabilitation and teleaudiology.

The meeting opened with a presentation by Amy Lynch, BridgeWorks, a company that specializes in generational communication. She discussed the various challenges related to encouraging people with hearing loss to obtain amplification at an earlier age, especially as similar messages resonate differently from generation to generation. Also, representatives of AAA, ADA, AGBell, ASHA, HLAA and IHS made presentations to review their regulatory efforts and/or programming plans. Political analyst Rich Galen concluded the program by analyzing prospects for the 2012 elections.