PART 2: By Thierry Morlet Ph.D.

         This second edition of the International Conference on Newborn Hearing Screening Diagnosis and Intervention in Como saw an increase in the presentation of successful and now well-established newborn hearing screening programs in various countries around the world. Implemented for now several years, involving hundreds of thousand of babies and adapted to the methods and customs of each country, those programs have drastically decreased the age at which diagnosis of hearing loss is made and therefore they allow for early rehabilitation in most cases. However, despite the active role of International committees entirely devoted to newborn auditory screening, it was obvious from the panel of communications that in some countries - and surprisingly in several countries renowned for the excellence of their health care system - the implementation of such newborn screening has not become a high priority in health management. It is noteworthy that babies from different countries do not receive the same chance of benefiting from much needed early rehabilitation in cases of congenital hearing impairment.

         Regarding the tools used for a successful auditory screening, it is clear now that only the combination of both OAE and ABR recordings will allow for detection of most hearing loss present at birth. Also, this combination of both types of tests has led more and more manufacturers to propose one piece of equipment combining the 2 tests (see our page on equipment for the most recent information).

         A significant part of the meeting was devoted to Auditory Neuropathy, which cannot be misdiagnosed when OAEs and ABRs are used in conjunction. Still too many professionals don't realize the incidence of this type of deafness and that its diagnosis and management is quite different from other kinds of hearing loss.

         Another interesting part of the meeting was devoted to the middle ear, which is often not given the attention it's due during newborn screening.
         In summary, this meeting showed again the reality of newborn auditory screening programs worldwide and validated once more the screening tools to be used for this purpose. Several compelling sessions and various posters focused on other aspects of hearing screenings that are not yet considered to be important by many: the parental concern and family support, the follow-up and, of course, the rehabilitation process (such as the cochlear implantation).

         What should we expect in two years from now for the third edition of this meeting? We could look forward to seeing less "basic" reports of newly implemented screening programs, more research and results on risk factors leading to deafness, more improvement of the techniques needed to screen quickly, accurately and for ALL degrees of hearing loss and more concern of progressive hearing impairment in infancy. Also, we shall see more reports on diagnosis and rehabilitation of infants with very mild levels of hearing loss which are far too often ignored these days but that can lead to too many cases of language impairment later in childhood.