Global hearing giant Amplifon has recruited TV doctor Dr Sarah Jarvis MBE to play an ambassadorial role as its medical advisor, offering advice to customers on hearing loss over the next 12 months.

While the English capital calls for a drop in noise levels, and Scotland’s largest city shows its main motorway is as loud as an airport runway, the Belgian city of Genk has brought in a major tech company to apply artificial intelligence (AI) to solve its sound pollution problems.

As part of a bold expansion of its audiology services, the British multinational optical retail chain, Specsavers, plans to open an additional 30 new audiology businesses in 2022, and is looking to recruit over 100 qualified audiologists and hearing aid dispensers.

Researchers at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and Sheba Medical Center have developed a way to 3D-print “scaffolding” as the basis for a replacement ear.

One of the largest independent hearing care networks in the USA, Alpaca Audiology, has been purchased for $310m by Swiss giant Sonova, significantly expanding the group's direct consumer access.

Attempts to link the novel coronavirus to hearing problems has so far led to patchy data. But an ear surgeon leading a research team at Johns Hopkins University may be cutting his way through cadavers towards plausible cellular mechanisms.

Judy Rudebusch Rich, EdD, CCC-SLP, BCS-CL, took office from January 1 as the 2022 President of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA).