King’s Birthday Honours for audiologist, ENT surgeon, Auslan pioneer, and volunteer

King's Birthday 2026 Honours recipients in the hearing care sector - clockwise, from top left - Professor Raymond Sacks, Emeritus Professor Richard Dowell, David Dinte and John Flynn. Images: RACS, RVEEH, NextSense and Deaf Connect. An audiologist who co-invented the speech processor for cochlear implants, an ENT surgeon, an interpreter who established the National Relay Service, and a NextSense volunteer were...

Continue reading at Hearing Practitioner Australia

✦ The floor

Discussion

Signed responses from readers of the wire.

✦ Clinical Takeaway ✦

No actionable change — this is a recognition and celebration piece with no clinical or practice implications.

✦ Why It Matters ✦

Highlighting sector honours raises the profile of audiology and hearing health advocacy within the broader Australian healthcare community.

✦ Key Points ✦

01Four hearing-sector figures received Australia's King's Birthday 2026 Honours.
02Prof. Raymond Sacks (ENT surgeon) and Emeritus Prof. Richard Dowell (cochlear-implant pioneer) were among honourees.
03Auslan advocate David Dinte and volunteer John Flynn were also recognised.
04The awards span clinical, research, linguistic, and community contributions to hearing health.

✦ Related stories ✦

PubMed·Journal article·Professional practice·4mo 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·2mo 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·4mo 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·4mo 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·4w 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·9d ago

Optimising resource use in audiology and speech therapy practice in South Africa: sectoral challenges, adaptive strategies and system-level implications

Healthcare resource scarcity in low- and middle-income countries directly limits audiology service delivery, and understanding adaptive strategies could inform policy and practice in similarly under-resourced settings worldwide.

PubMed·Journal article·Professional practice·3mo 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.