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Dave Fabry: Thank you for taking the time with us today, Fred Bess, PhD. You were a founding member of the Academy, and our second president after Dr. Jim Jerger. You had been very active with the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), and had a burgeoning professional role at the Bill Wilkerson Center at Vanderbilt, with your teaching and research career there. What was your reasons for focusing your energies on the formation of a new professional organization?

The President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) issued a report in late 2015 suggesting that the market for hearing-impaired consumers was characterized by high cost and low innovation, and suggested that current distribution channels created a barrier to access for older Americans in need of hearing care (HLAA, 2016). The Council further declared that hearing health care was too expensive for the majority of Americans.

Since 2005, the Marion Downs Lecture in Pediatric Audiology has been the highlight for pediatric audiologists attending AudiologyNOW!, the annual convention of the American Academy of Audiology. This lecture series is supported with a grant from The Oticon Foundation. The inaugural lecture was given by Anu Sharma, PhD. Many pediatric audiologists, myself included, can remember sitting in that session, captivated and inspired by the groundbreaking work that Dr. Sharma presented on the biological markers of auditory development and the impact of early intervention.

Audiologists see a variety of hearing losses, mild sloping to severe, flat, and precipitous. We do not question to recommend amplification for a patient with a moderate hearing loss or a high-frequency, mild-to-severe hearing loss. But what about a mild, high-frequency hearing loss? What determines whether a patient chooses a hearing aid?