The Military Audiology Short Course (MASC) for 2007 was held 16-18 April 2007 in Denver, Colorado. In this entry we offer a content overview from this course.
Presentation abstracts from the meeting
Invited Speakers
Each year MAA invites ex-military or prominent non-military affiliated speakers to address our organization.
Telehealth: The new frontier for Audiology?
John Ribera Ph.D.
While telehealth has been in use among many health care providers for several decades, this technology-driven delivery system has been slow to be infused into everyday audiological practices. This presentation will look at the history of telehealth in audiology to include validation studies as well a look to the future and possible uses of this delivery system. In addition, a demonstration will be provided to allow attendees to see and use a simple telehealth set-up for audiometric testing.
Speech in Noise: How Well do Those Aviators Hear Anyway?
John Ribera Ph.D.
This presentation will deal with speech intelligibility in noise among Army rotary-wing aviators using existing tests and will discuss the current “fitness-to-fly” criteria. Data from a studies conducted at USAARL will be presented.
Employee Education: Learning the Value of Hearing
Laurie Wells, MS, FAAA, Associates in Acoustics, Inc.
Since noise induced hearing loss is an invisible and insidious invader, motivating the at-risk employee is challenging. Therefore, it is critical for each employee to discover that hearing is precious and worth protecting. Ideas and demonstrations will be presented to enhance employee training classes and encourage active participation in the Hearing Loss Prevention Program. By knowing the physical and psychological effects of noise-induced hearing loss as well as appreciating the intricate, complex sensory organ of hearing, people will be more apt to carry the responsibility of good hearing health care.
Army
Presentation abstracts from the Army include the following:
Noise Injury Surveillance Finds Its Way into the Defense Safety Oversight Council’s Epidemiologic Analysis in Prevention Prioritization Project.
Tom Helfer, Ph.D., Michelle Chervak, Ph.D., Bruce Jones, MD, MPH
In April 2006, due to increased DoD leadership emphasis on injury prevention, the Defense Safety Oversight Council (DSOC) established the Epidemiologic Analysis and Injury Prevention Prioritization Project (EAIPPP). The purpose of the EAIPPP is to 1) analyze and summarize DoD military injury surveillance data, 2) prioritize DoD injury problems using data and objective criteria, 3) assess the status of scientific evidence about leading DoD injury issues, and 4) identify evidence-based injury prevention strategies. Noise induced hearing injury (NIHI) is now incorporated into the EAIPPP. Since early 2003 these noise injury metrics have provided a perception of improved NIHI data quality for population health analysis using epidemiological inference. In early 2004 a multi-disciplinary noise injury surveillance partnership (NISP) at USACHPPM started conducting a series of studies of post-deployment NIHI to demonstrate the capability to use the injury surveillance methods promulgated by the DOD Military Injury Metrics Working Group in 2002. Since then the NISP has made stepwise refinements to an emerging noise injury surveillance process that is compatible with DOD injury surveillance information products. Noise injury surveillance data quality standards and epidemiological analysis methods are discussed with reference to the quality of noise injury surveillance information to be provided to public health managers for guiding intervention actions. Clinical providers play an important role in the noise induced injury surveillance and epidemiologic process by adhering to the data quality standards in their clinical care recordkeeping and coding.
Auditory Trajectory Perception by Stationary Observers
MAJ Marjorie Gratham
Listeners must sometimes rely on their hearing alone to discriminate between turning versus straight-moving vehicles, e.g., Soldiers on foot in a limited-visibility, urban environment or blind pedestrians at a roundabout crosswalk. Researchers don’t yet clearly understand what allows us to perceive differences in moving sound sources. In this study, a sound source moving along a straight or turning path was simulated using a loudspeaker array in an anechoic chamber. Two variables were examined: “vehicle” turn radius and velocity. The path length required to discriminate straight versus turning motion paths was measured. All listeners required a significantly shorter path length for discrimination with the tighter turn radius. The results suggest that discrimination of moving sound sources requires greater direction and intensity differences than minimum audible angle or minimum audible movement angle tasks, indicating that motion perception requires the use of different auditory information from that used to perceive locations of stationary sound sources. This talk will briefly cover the study design, the findings, and their implications.
Overview of the Army Hearing Program
LTC Kathy Gates
The Army Hearing Conservation Program is undergoing a transformation from a garrison/industrial-based program to a more operational hearing program. Hearing loss trends in deployed Soldiers is about 1 in 4 and new VA claims for hearing loss and tinnitus is number one/two. An operational hearing program will provide hearing services to soldiers in all environments including the battlefield. Major components of the Army Hearing Program consist of:
- Hearing Readiness
- Clinical hearing services
- Operational hearing services
- Hearing Conservation Program
Briefing will provide an overview of the Army Hearing Program: Preserving Soldiers’ hearing and communication ability anywhere, anytime, in war and in peace.
Procedures for Coding Hearing Conservation In AHLTA: Maximizing Workload Capture while Minimizing Time Requirements
CPT Jillyen Curry
The driving force behind today’s Medical Treatment Facility is not only timely and effective patient care, but also the efficient management of an ever-tightening budget. In an attempt to include and justify the workload of the Hearing Conservation sector within these reports, technicians and audiologists alike have begun transitioning to the AHLTA medical care documentation system. The time requirements of producing an AHLTA SOAP note for clinics that often generate 100-200 daily patient visits per technician, however, has necessarily impacted operating procedures. In addition, constantly changing coding requirements has made it difficult to ensure completion of accurate medical/legal documentation that concurrently supports DoD-directed ad hoc research. This course will offer up-to-date coding requirement information for both technicians and audiologists and provide access to hearing conservation templates built to streamline the coding process. Workable shortcuts currently employed at Fort Stewart and differences in reimbursement rates under different MEPRS codes will be covered briefly. An open forum for input from other installations will be encouraged in a directed-discussion format at the conclusion of this presentation.