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20 been submitted to the PGG (Professional Guidance Group) in December 2017.The revised documents clarify a number of issues and will enable enhancement to practice. In early 2018, revision of the Guidelines for the early audiological assessment and management of babies referred from the newborn hearing screening programme is expected to be completed, offering clearer guidelines for clinical practice. The recommended procedure for Otoacoustic Emissions (OAEs) Testing in paediatric and adult audiology is also due to go out to membership consultation. During 2018 the EPIG steering group will be producing regular short articles of interest that will be e-mailed to EPIG members. This will include subjects such as a ‘reference to a scientific article’ with a brief summary and a personal view on what was of particular interest in the publication or ‘EP Tips’ that will focus on a specific area of clinical practice, taken from the EP guidelines - e.g. Why it is important to test 1kHz before proceeding to CM when 4kHz is absent or grossly abnormal or when to use a notch filter. Of course, questions won’t be limited to ABR testing of babies and in time will extend to OAE and SVR work. If you are interested developing your expertise and skills in electrophysiology work why not join the EPIG as a member, just e-mail on the contact above, membership is open to all BSA members.
Paediatric Audiology Interest Group (PAIG) Verity Hill Paediatric Audiology Interest Group (PAIG) E: verity.hill@uhcw.nhs.uk
We had our 1st PAIG meeting of 2018 in January where we congratulated each other on a great 2017 and put together our action plan for 2018. Things to look out for include: • A revised version of the Distraction Test Guideline and the Behavioural Observation Audiometry Guideline. We welcome comments from the BSA members when they come out for consultation. • Joy Rosenberg from Mary Hare has worked hard with Laura Turton to provide an e-learning course on educational audiology. Please look out for this on BSA Grow soon. • Myself at Coventry and Veronica Roscoe from Warwick will be looking and working on the impression taking guideline for under 5 years and will get the 1st draft
BSA Today
together by the end of April 2018. • Karen Willis from Nottingham and Vanessa Sharp from Brighton are looking forward with working with the Electrophysiology SIG on the review of ‘Guidelines for the early audiological assessment and management of babies referred from the NHSP’. Unfortunately, we are losing Kinjal Mehta from the PAIG who has stepped down to finish her PhD studies. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Kinjal for all her dedicated work over the past 2 years and good luck for the future. We look forward to welcoming new committee members to the PAIG in the coming year and we always encourage new interested potential committee members to contact us via bsa@thebsa.org.uk the subject for the attention of the PAIG Chair. Please also get in contact if there is anything that you think PAIG should be looking at for 2018.
Cognition and Hearing Special Interest Group (PAIG) Christian Fullgrabe Cognition and Hearing Special Interest Group (CH SIG) E: Christian.Fullgrabe@nottingham.ac.uk
At the 2017 BSA Annual Conference in Harrogate, Piers Dawes “retired” from his role as the chair of the Cognition & Hearing SIG. Through his own research and active involvement in SIG activities, Piers has been very successful in raising awareness for and in channelling efforts to further explore the interplay between auditory and cognitive processes. As one of the SIG’s founding members, he has greatly shaped and inspired the Cognition & Hearing SIG, and he has played an instrumental and facilitatory role in many of the SIG’s achievements over the past years. These include the publication of a much-cited “white paper” on listening effort and fatigue (McGarrigle et al., 2014), and the drafting of proposals for development of assessment and treatment guidelines for adults with learning disabilities and adults with dementia, led by SIG members Siobhan Brennan and Sarah Bent, respectively. As the new chair, I would like thank Piers in the name of the entire CH SIG for his contributions. The SIG’s steering committee is scheduled to meet in early 2018 to discuss future work priorities of the SIG, as well as its general format and role within the BSA.This and all other meetings are open to interested SIG members.