Seminars in Hearing最新文献

Audiology at the Intersection of Labor, Revenue, and Professional Taxonomy. 劳动、收入和专业分类交叉的听力学。

Seminars in Hearing Pub Date : 2026-10-06 eCollection Date: 2026-05-01 DOI: 10.1055/s-0046-1825787

Victor Bray

{"title":"Audiology at the Intersection of Labor, Revenue, and Professional Taxonomy.","authors":"Victor Bray","doi":"10.1055/s-0046-1825787","DOIUrl":"10.1055/s-0046-1825787","url":null,"abstract":"A healthcare profession's economic position is determined not only by its educational preparation or clinical scope, but also by how its services are classified, reimbursed, and translated into professional labor demand. This article examines audiology through the integrated framework of professional taxonomy, revenue generation, and labor economics to explain the structural factors underlying the profession's current economic position within the U.S. healthcare system. Drawing on principles of labor economics and evidence synthesized from companion analyses of workforce supply and professional earnings, the manuscript characterizes how regulatory classification, reimbursement authority, and prevailing revenue models interact to shape the valuation and deployment of audiologic labor. The analysis argues that audiology occupies a hybrid position spanning diagnostic, therapeutic, and product-linked models without achieving full economic recognition within any of them. This structural misalignment limits independent billing authority, constrains pricing power, weakens the relationship between clinical expertise and professional revenue, and contributes to compressed earnings, restricted workforce growth, and limited scalability of service delivery. Understanding these interdependent structural relationships provides an explanatory framework for interpreting audiology's workforce and economic challenges and establishes a foundation for evaluating future policy, reimbursement, and practice model reforms intended to strengthen the profession's long-term sustainability.","PeriodicalId":53691,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in Hearing","volume":"47 2","pages":"102-107"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13641865/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149118366","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Professional Status of Audiology in U.S. Healthcare: A Health Economics Perspective. 听力学在美国医疗保健中的专业地位：健康经济学视角。

Seminars in Hearing Pub Date : 2026-10-06 eCollection Date: 2026-05-01 DOI: 10.1055/s-0046-1825794

Amyn M Amlani

{"title":"Professional Status of Audiology in U.S. Healthcare: A Health Economics Perspective.","authors":"Amyn M Amlani","doi":"10.1055/s-0046-1825794","DOIUrl":"10.1055/s-0046-1825794","url":null,"abstract":"Professional status in healthcare is determined not only by educational preparation or statutory scope of practice, but also by how a profession functions within reimbursement systems, labor markets, and healthcare delivery. This article applies a health economics framework to evaluate the current professional status of audiology in the United States using observable economic indicators rather than aspirational goals or regulatory intent. Drawing on evidence synthesized from companion analyses of workforce trends, professional earnings, educational investment, reimbursement policy, and labor market dynamics, the review examines how reimbursement authority, pricing power, workforce growth, earnings trajectories, and productivity collectively reflect professional standing. The analysis demonstrates that, despite doctoral-level education and expanding clinical competencies, audiology remains constrained by limited reimbursement authority, restricted pricing autonomy, narrow service valuation, and clinician-dependent delivery models that limit workforce scalability and economic returns. These structural conditions contribute to constrained earnings growth, workforce instability, and increasing debt-to-income pressures, placing the profession in an intermediate economic position relative to other doctoral health professions. The article concludes that professional advancement should be evaluated through measurable economic outcomes and that meaningful progress toward autonomous professional status will require coordinated alignment of reimbursement, revenue architecture, labor deployment, and professional classification within the U.S. healthcare system.","PeriodicalId":53691,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in Hearing","volume":"47 2","pages":"150-158"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13641837/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149118496","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Workforce Sustainability in Audiology: Evidence, Challenges, and a Roadmap to Autonomy. 听力学中的劳动力可持续性：证据、挑战和自主路线图。

Seminars in Hearing Pub Date : 2026-10-06 eCollection Date: 2026-05-01 DOI: 10.1055/s-0046-1825786

Victor Bray, Amyn M Amlani

引用次数: 0

Audiology in 2050: Aligning Collective Professional Perspectives to Create a Roadmap for the Future. 2050年的听力学：调整集体专业观点，为未来制定路线图。

Seminars in Hearing Pub Date : 2026-10-06 eCollection Date: 2026-05-01 DOI: 10.1055/s-0046-1825796

Amyn M Amlani, Victor Bray

{"title":"Audiology in 2050: Aligning Collective Professional Perspectives to Create a Roadmap for the Future.","authors":"Amyn M Amlani, Victor Bray","doi":"10.1055/s-0046-1825796","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0046-1825796","url":null,"abstract":"This study examines expert perspectives on the future of the audiology profession using the Audiology 2050 framework as a guiding analytic lens. A structured, open-ended survey was distributed to 52 invited subject matter experts representing eight professional segments of the audiology workforce, with 41 responding (79%). Responses were analyzed using two-stage qualitative analysis: inductive thematic coding followed by framework-based recoding across the seven Audiology 2050 domains. Findings reveal that the profession's most frequently cited challenges - scope limitations, inconsistent practice standards, workforce strain, reimbursement barriers, and constrained autonomy - are not independent problems but structurally interdependent system components that must mature in a coordinated sequence. Scope of practice modernization emerges as the foundational enabling condition upon which evidence-based practice standardization, workforce redesign, professional socialization, and advocacy collectively depend. Medicare Limited License Practitioner (LLP) reclassification is identified as the critical structural inflection point, functioning as a multiplier of upstream alignment rather than a standalone solution. Primary care entry point status for auditory and vestibular conditions is positioned as the culminating, profession-wide outcome. These findings are synthesized into a proposed phased roadmap to 2050 and a dependency network illustrating the sequencing required for coordinated structural reform. The analyses suggest that professional autonomy is achievable, but only if dependency relationships among foundational domains are acknowledged and addressed in sequence.","PeriodicalId":53691,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in Hearing","volume":"47 2","pages":"159-174"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13641835/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149118393","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Economic Implications of Audiology Student Debt for Workforce Sustainability. 听力学学生债务对劳动力可持续性的经济影响。

Seminars in Hearing Pub Date : 2026-10-06 eCollection Date: 2026-05-01 DOI: 10.1055/s-0046-1825789

Amyn M Amlani, Jaime S Schulang

{"title":"Economic Implications of Audiology Student Debt for Workforce Sustainability.","authors":"Amyn M Amlani, Jaime S Schulang","doi":"10.1055/s-0046-1825789","DOIUrl":"10.1055/s-0046-1825789","url":null,"abstract":"Rising educational costs and comparatively modest early-career wages have created a structural return-on-investment problem for the Doctor of Audiology (AuD) degree, with implications extending beyond individual finances to workforce sustainability and access to care. This article examines the economic burden of audiology training within the broader context of U.S. graduate student debt, using debt-to-income (DTI) analysis to compare early-career AuD professionals with speech-language pathology peers under otherwise identical financial assumptions. Findings indicate that AuD graduates carry substantially higher back-end DTI ratios and retain markedly less discretionary income, driven by higher average graduate debt, exclusion from favorable federal lending programs available to comparable health professions, and an uncompensated fourth-year clinical externship that concentrates the full financial burden of that year into a period with no or insufficient offsetting income. Recent federal policy changes under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA)-including new aggregate borrowing caps and an unsettled definition of \"professional degree\" programs-introduce additional uncertainty for future cohorts. The article outlines institutional, federal, and state-level reforms, with particular attention to externship compensation models, as levers to reduce debt accumulation while strengthening workforce entry, retention, and geographic distribution. Meaningful improvement requires alignment between training cost and professional earning potential, not cost containment alone.","PeriodicalId":53691,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in Hearing","volume":"47 2","pages":"120-133"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13641846/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149118438","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Economics of Audiology Wages: Benchmarking a Doctoral Health Profession Within U.S. Healthcare. 听力学工资经济学：美国医疗保健领域的博士健康专业标杆。

Seminars in Hearing Pub Date : 2026-10-06 eCollection Date: 2026-05-01 DOI: 10.1055/s-0046-1825788

Victor Bray, Amyn M Amlani

{"title":"Economics of Audiology Wages: Benchmarking a Doctoral Health Profession Within U.S. Healthcare.","authors":"Victor Bray, Amyn M Amlani","doi":"10.1055/s-0046-1825788","DOIUrl":"10.1055/s-0046-1825788","url":null,"abstract":"Audiology requires doctoral-level education, yet its earnings trajectory has remained comparatively modest within U.S. healthcare. This article examines historical trends in audiology wages using national Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) data, benchmarking absolute wage levels, growth trajectories, and degree-based comparisons against 33 other healthcare occupations. Results indicate that the rate of wage growth slowed following the profession's transition to doctoral-level entry relative to the preceding master's-dominant period. Audiology wages also remained closely coupled to speech-language pathology wages throughout the study period. When benchmarked against healthcare professions grouped by minimum educational requirement, audiology's mean wage clustered within the master's-degree wage band rather than the doctoral-degree band, a pattern consistent with credential-wage decoupling. These findings suggest that increased educational requirements alone were insufficient to reposition audiology's economic standing, with structural factors-including reimbursement dependency, device-anchored revenue models, employment-based compensation structures, and scope fragmentation-implicated as consistent explanations. Earnings function here as a workforce sustainability signal with implications for recruitment, retention, and professional positioning within U.S. healthcare.","PeriodicalId":53691,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in Hearing","volume":"47 2","pages":"95-101"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13641855/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149118491","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Shaping the Future of Audiology: Current and Evolving Landscape of Audiology Education. 塑造听力学的未来：当前和不断发展的听力学教育景观。

Seminars in Hearing Pub Date : 2026-10-06 eCollection Date: 2026-05-01 DOI: 10.1055/s-0046-1825795

Jonette Owen, Hannah Siburt, Devon Weist

{"title":"Shaping the Future of Audiology: Current and Evolving Landscape of Audiology Education.","authors":"Jonette Owen, Hannah Siburt, Devon Weist","doi":"10.1055/s-0046-1825795","DOIUrl":"10.1055/s-0046-1825795","url":null,"abstract":"The Doctor of Audiology (AuD) has served as the entry-level degree for more than 25 years, yet audiology education continues to evolve in response to changing healthcare delivery, expanding professional responsibilities, and persistent workforce challenges. This article reviews the historical development of AuD education and examines the current educational landscape through analyses of enrollment trends, degree production, accreditation standards, applicant pathways, curriculum design, and clinical education. Although educational reform alone cannot resolve the profession's broader workforce and economic challenges, the review argues that education remains a critical lever for preparing graduates to practice as autonomous healthcare providers. Key priorities include broadening and diversifying recruitment beyond traditional communication sciences pathways, adopting competency alignment, strengthening clinical reasoning through simulation and standardized assessment, reexamining the structure of the fourth-year externship, and aligning accreditation standards with contemporary practice expectations. The article further emphasizes the importance of professional identity formation and interprofessional education in preparing graduates for collaborative, patient-centered care. Collectively, these recommendations position audiology education as a dynamic and evolving enterprise that must continually adapt to advances in healthcare, workforce demands, and the profession's expanding scope of practice while maintaining educational excellence and public accountability.","PeriodicalId":53691,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in Hearing","volume":"47 2","pages":"134-149"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13641841/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149118476","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Audiology Workforce Supply and Population Demand: Trends, Benchmarks, and Implications. 听力学劳动力供给和人口需求：趋势、基准和影响。

Seminars in Hearing Pub Date : 2026-10-06 eCollection Date: 2026-05-01 DOI: 10.1055/s-0046-1825792

Victor Bray, Amyn M Amlani

{"title":"Audiology Workforce Supply and Population Demand: Trends, Benchmarks, and Implications.","authors":"Victor Bray, Amyn M Amlani","doi":"10.1055/s-0046-1825792","DOIUrl":"10.1055/s-0046-1825792","url":null,"abstract":"Audiology's viability as a self-sustaining, autonomous profession depends on a workforce capable of meeting population demand. This article benchmarks audiology's (AuD) workforce supply against comparable healthcare professions and projected growth in hearing loss prevalence. Using Bureau of Labor Statistics data from 1999 to 2024, AuD workforce trends were compared with 16 other advanced-degree healthcare professions. AuD's mean annual growth rate (1.77%) ranked third lowest among 17 master's- and doctoral-level professions, well below four peer disciplines (occupational therapy, physical therapy, optometry, speech-language pathology), which grew 5.5 times faster over the same period. An input/output model of graduate production versus workforce departure showed that AuD's constrained growth stems not from insufficient educational throughput but from elevated departure rates, including abandonment of the profession. Meanwhile, the hearing aid specialist workforce grew over 200% between 2012 and 2024, suggesting substitution in core clinical functions. Population modeling projects the number of U.S. adults with hearing impairment will nearly double by 2060, widening the supply-demand gap. These findings indicate that AuD's transition to a doctoral entry-level degree introduced a lasting structural constraint on workforce capacity, with implications for access to care, professional autonomy, and audiology's positioning within value-based healthcare delivery.","PeriodicalId":53691,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in Hearing","volume":"47 2","pages":"84-94"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13641860/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149118421","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Audiology's Nomenclature and Taxonomy Under the Law: Implications for Access and Coverage of Audiology Services. 听力学的命名法和法律下的分类：听力学服务的获取和覆盖的含义。

Seminars in Hearing Pub Date : 2026-10-06 eCollection Date: 2026-05-01 DOI: 10.1055/s-0046-1825793

Stephanie Czuhajewski, Deb Abel, Kim Cavitt

{"title":"Audiology's Nomenclature and Taxonomy Under the Law: Implications for Access and Coverage of Audiology Services.","authors":"Stephanie Czuhajewski, Deb Abel, Kim Cavitt","doi":"10.1055/s-0046-1825793","DOIUrl":"10.1055/s-0046-1825793","url":null,"abstract":"Access to audiology services is shaped not only by clinical competence but also by the statutory language that defines the profession under state licensure laws and federal Medicare policy. This article examines how audiology's legal nomenclature and taxonomy influence scope of practice, reimbursement, and patient access to hearing and balance care in the United States. State audiology practice acts and federal Medicare statutes are compared with those governing other clinical healthcare professions to identify structural differences in professional classification and covered services. The analysis demonstrates that many state practice acts have not evolved alongside the profession's transition to doctoral-level education, resulting in outdated definitions that fail to recognize contemporary responsibilities related to diagnosis, management, treatment, prescribing authority, and the use of clinical extenders. At the federal level, Medicare continues to classify audiology primarily as a diagnostic supplier service, creating gaps in coverage for treatment services and limiting participation in modern reimbursement models. These statutory and regulatory inconsistencies contribute to fragmented care, unnecessary administrative burdens, reduced access for Medicare beneficiaries, and underutilization of audiologists' clinical expertise. Modernizing professional nomenclature and taxonomy at both the state and federal levels is presented as a foundational step toward improving access, aligning regulation with contemporary practice, and strengthening hearing healthcare delivery.","PeriodicalId":53691,"journal":{"name":"Seminars in Hearing","volume":"47 2","pages":"108-119"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2026-10-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13641854/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149118457","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Power in Your Pocket: Maximizing Mobile Accessibility for Adolescents Who Are Deaf or Hard of Hearing. 口袋里的力量：最大限度地为失聪或听力障碍的青少年提供移动便利。

Seminars in Hearing Pub Date : 2026-04-13 eCollection Date: 2026-02-01 DOI: 10.1055/s-0046-1815942

Tina Gonzales Childress

引用次数: 0