AEA Mini Symposium - 11th of May 2014

Hearing protection – part of professional hearing care: Fritz Zajicek
Hearing protection is important and should be handled by hearing care professionals – Both public and political awareness of the importance of protecting your ears needs to be raised using campaigns and seminars on this topic. The Austrian campaign proves to be a good and inspiring example.

Professional Hearing Care in Poland – status and priorities for the future: Tomasz Szutko Representative PSPS (Polish Association of Hearing Aid Professionals)
The Polish association of Hearing Aid Professionals has recently elected a young dynamic management. Both the activities of PSPS and the organization of hearing care in Poland were clearly described.

How does the customer see Professional Hearing Care? – What are the priorities for the future? Marcel Bobeldijk president of EFHOH (European Federation for Hard of Hearing people)
EFHOH represents 51 million hard of hearing people in Europe. Hearing care professionals must focus on the patient’s benefit, giving proper information on how to use hearing technology, ensuring that the assessment is very close to daily life needs and trying to perceive the client as a new adventure.

AEA and EHIMA: where can we go hand in hand? Soren Hougaard - Secretary General of EHIMA – (European Hearing Instrument Manufacturers Association)
Hearing aids are medical devices – whose hardware is only a part of the hearing rehabilitation performed by skilled professionals. Therefore we need to invest in quality education and ongoing training, increasing public awareness of hearing issues, making policy makers aware of the costs of untreated hearing loss and promoting adult hearing screening.

Modernizing attitudes to hearing care. Curtis Alcock - Founder of Audira (a web-based think tank dedicated to shaping the future of hearing care)
The primary reason to use your hearing is to stay connected to the world around you, to people and in general to all the events oflife. Since this is so fundamental, regularly checking your hearing should be as logic as having your eyes and teeth checked. This is essential, since you need to get hearing care, before the connection breaks – as you want to have the breaks of your car checked to prevent you from a car crash.

The changing healthcare environment in Europe: Impact on hearing implants and hearing aids. Patrick D’Haese - Corporate Director of Awareness and Public Affairs – Medel
Developing sustainable healthcare systems with equal patient access to quality healthcare and social services is a big challenge. Although health care reimbursement is a national matter, the European Union gains more and more influence on health care policies and quality standards – with the positive aspect of using more synergies but also the challenge to avoid too stringent regulations that could prevent innovation.

Hearing & Cognition – The added value of professional hearing care: Mark Laureyns
Hearing loss does increase the chance to develop dementia – hearing care has a positive impact on cognition and other very important aspects of quality of life. In times of heavy pressure on professional hearing care – this kind of information can help us to talk much more positive about what we do.