By Viral Tejani
This article is a part of the September/October 2024, Volume 36, Number 5, Audiology Today issue.
As shared in the January/February 2024 issue of Audiology Today, the Guidelines and Strategic Documents Committee is continuing the efforts to update the process and procedures of document development for the American Academy of Audiology (Shoup, 2024). Read on to learn more about the upcoming release of a key pediatric consensus statement and collaborative efforts to endorse important external documents for the education of other health-care providers, as well as the critical documents that the Academy has currently under development.
Assessment of Vestibular Function in the Pediatric Population
The Academy would like to thank members for their participation in the public comment period in 2023 of the American Academy of Audiology Clinical Consensus Statement: Assessment of Vestibular Function in the Pediatric Population. Chaired by Violette Lavender, AuD, the document serves as a practical guide to pediatric vestibular assessment and covers bedside assessment, vestibular evoked myogenic potentials, video head impulse test, videonystagmography, rotational chair, and use of questionnaires. Both test administration and interpretation are discussed. The document will be published in the Journal of the American Academy of Audiology and will be presented by Academy president-elect Patricia Gaffney, AuD, at the upcoming Bárány Society meeting in Sweden in August.
AAO-HNSF Clinical Practice Guideline: Age-Related Hearing Loss
The American Academy of Audiology recognizes that many professional organizations develop high-quality clinical practice documents that would benefit the Academy’s membership and/or promote hearing and balance care in other health professions. All clinical practice documents considered for endorsement by the Academy go through a structured review process by the Guidelines and Strategic Documents Committee, which focuses on the quality of the process used to develop the document and its accuracy in the hearing and balance care of patients. This process also promotes alignment among different professional organizations on common patient care issues.
In May 2024, the American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery Foundation released Clinical Practice Guideline: Age-Related Hearing Loss (Tsai Do et al, 2024). American Academy of Audiology past president Catherine V. Palmer, PhD, served on the guideline development group. This document provides clinicians in all care settings with recommendations for identification and management of age-related hearing loss, particularly for early identification of hearing loss in adults aged 50 years and older who are typically underserved.
The Academy was invited to review the guideline for endorsement, and in July 2024, the Board of Directors voted to endorse the guideline after review from subject-area experts. The guideline increases awareness about hearing loss in older adults and educates providers on available care pathways for adults to receive timely hearing-health care. Audiologists can utilize this guideline in outreach efforts to referring primary care providers and specialists who serve patients with comorbid conditions related to hearing loss. Public awareness and early access to high-quality hearing-health care will be critical for effective management of age-related hearing loss and ultimately improving quality of life for aging adults.
Academy Clinical Practice Documents in Development
TABLE 1 lists the current clinical practice documents that will be shared for public comment. Look out for an announcement on when the public comment period will begin. The public comment period is an integral part of clinical and strategic document development. It promotes transparency and enables the Academy to engage interested stakeholders to critically review and offer feedback prior to a document’s finalization and publication. This, in turn, provides a higher-quality product to the membership and facilitates implementation and dissemination efforts. We anticipate sharing these documents in 2025–2026 for public comment and look forward to hearing your feedback.
| DOCUMENT TOPIC | CHAIRED BY |
| Guideline on Management of Adult Hearing Loss | Christina Roup, PhD, and Jodi Baxter, AuD |
| Guideline on Assessment of Hearing Evaluation in Adults | Deborah Carlson, PhD |
| Guideline on Diagnosis of Vestibular Disorders | Julie Honaker, PhD |
| Guideline on Diagnosis and Management of Tinnitus | Tricia Scaglione, AuD |
| Academy/American Geriatrics Society Clinical Consensus Statement on Untreated Hearing Loss Linked to Depression and Social Isolation in Older Adults | Nicholas Reed, AuD, PhD, Academy Chair |
| Health-Related Quality-of-Life Benefits of Amplification for Adults with Sensorineural Hearing Loss: A Systematic Review | Carole Johnson, PhD, AuD, and Anna Marie Jilla, AuD, PhD |
References
Lavender V, Bachmann K, Caine M, Castiglione M, Janky K, Zhou GW. (2024) American Academy of Audiology clinical consensus statement: assessment of vestibular function in the pediatric population. J Am Acad Audiol [In press].
Shoup A. (2024) Academy clinical practice guidelines and strategic documents: ways to get involved. Audiol Today 36(1):64–66.
Tsai Do BS, Bush ML, Weinreich HM, et al. (2024) Clinical practice guideline: age-related hearing loss. Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 170(Suppl 2):S1–S54.
