The Power of Audiology

Recently on my break, I came across an article written on a larger than life legend in my profession. Dr. Marion Downs passed away November 2014 at the age of 100. She was someone who stumbled on the profession but had an incredible influence on newborn hearing screening. Despite her persistence for more than 30 years, it wasn’t until 1993 that the National Institutes of Health made a consensus recommendation for universal newborn hearing screening. Today 97% of all American newborns born in a hospital or birthing center are screened at birth.

Click the link below to read the article and be sure to listen to the short 3 minute interview.

https://www.npr.org/2014/12/28/371962273/remembering-the-pioneering-audiologist-who-tested-hearing-at-birth

Your friend in Audiology,

Dr. Breitling