Stop, Collaborate & Listen From: Product Design & Development - 04/22/2015 Screening newborn infants for hearing loss is a relatively new practice that didn’t become common in the United States until the mid-to-late 1990s. Before its introduction, children often weren't diagnosed with congenital hearing loss until they were three years of age or older. Late hearing impediment identification can translate into delayed speech and language development. In late 2013, engineers at Natus Medical launched the Echo-Screen III newborn hearing screener. The screener incorporates transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE), distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE), and auditory brainstem response (ABR) capabilities. The otoacoustic emissions (OAE) technology delivers clicks or tone bursts through the newborn's ear canal via a probe inserted into his or her ear. The child’s cochlear will then create sound waves in response to the noises, which are measured and recorded by the ear probe. Similarly, the ABR technology sends soft clicking sounds to the newborn's ears through an ear probe or headphones, but sensors placed on the child detect responses to the sound from his or her brain and send them to the device for analysis. Typically, each test mode takes two minutes. Both OAE and ABR technologies are fully automated in the Echo-Screen III, meaning the device will provide automatic pass or refer results and fixed screening parameters. A refer result indicates that further testing is needed. Read the entire article at: http://www.pddnet.com/articles/2015/04/stop-collaborate-listen http://digital.pddnet.com/productdesignanddevelopment/april_2015#pg14 Links: Natus Medical http://www.natus.com Echo-Screen III Hearing Screener http://www.natus.com/index.cfm?page=products_1&crid=1039