Top-10 Hearing Healthcare Stories and Trends in 2024-25

✦ The floor

Discussion

Signed responses from readers of the wire.

✦ Clinical Takeaway ✦

No actionable clinical change — this is a year-in-review roundup for situational awareness, not a practice-guidance piece.

✦ Why It Matters ✦

Keeping up with the year's top industry and policy shifts helps audiologists and clinic owners anticipate how the competitive and regulatory landscape may evolve.

✦ Key Points ✦

01Covers the ten most significant hearing healthcare stories and trends from 2024–2025.
02Spans industry, clinical, and policy developments in a single roundup.
03Useful for professionals wanting a quick orientation to the current state of the field.
04No single clinical or research finding is the focus — breadth is the goal.
05Trade-press framing means coverage is descriptive rather than analytical.

✦ Related stories ✦

PubMed·Journal article·Professional practice·3mo ago

"We can make awful mistakes": exploring briefing and debriefing practices in hearing care appointments involving spoken language interpreters

Audiologists working with spoken language interpreters should implement structured pre-appointment briefing and post-appointment debriefing to reduce miscommunication and improve patient safety in hearing care.

PubMed·Journal article·Professional practice·8w ago

Goal-setting in audiology: where practice aligns with, or falls short of, best practice

Audiologists should audit their own goal-setting conversations: if goals are not routinely co-created with patients using structured, person-centred approaches, there is a clear gap between current practice and evidence-informed guidelines that warrants a direct change.

Hearing Review·Blog·Professional practice·3mo ago

How to Handle Medical Emergencies in the Audiology Office

Audiology practices should establish and rehearse emergency response protocols — including staff CPR/first-aid training and a written emergency action plan — because survey data confirm life-threatening events do occur in clinic settings.

PubMed·Journal article·Professional practice·3mo ago

Mitigating risk in audiology and speech therapy practice: Essential risk management and control strategies for private and public practices in resource-constrained health systems

Clinics operating in resource-constrained settings should review their risk management frameworks; the strategies outlined may be directly applicable to practice governance, though the evidence base is likely expert-opinion level.

Hearing Review·Professional org·Professional practice·5d ago

APSO Opens Audiology Assistant Standard for Public Review and Comment

Audiologists and clinic owners who employ or supervise audiology assistants should review and submit comments on the proposed APSO standard before November 6, 2026, as it may directly affect assistant scope-of-practice rules in their practice.

PubMed·Journal article·Professional practice·5mo ago

Counseling in audiology practice in Saudi Arabia: perceptions, confidence, training experiences, and barriers - a cross-sectional survey

Audiologists in Saudi Arabia report gaps in counseling confidence and training; clinics with international staff or training programs should review whether counseling competency gaps identified here apply to their own settings.

PubMed·Journal article·Professional practice·2mo ago

Speech-Language Pathologists' Confidence and Preparedness Working With Clients With Hearing Loss

No immediate change to audiology clinical practice is warranted, but findings suggest stronger inter-professional collaboration and referral pathways between audiologists and SLPs may be needed given reported SLP confidence gaps.

Hearing Practitioner Australia·Professional org·Professional practice·3mo ago

Audiology Australia develops guide for members to help patients with suicidal ideation

Australian audiologists should familiarise themselves with and adopt Audiology Australia's new best-practice guide for responding to patients presenting with suicidal ideation or deteriorating mental health.