MTÜ Eesti Meeleelundite
Rehabilitatsiooni Keskus AUDIERE
(MTÜ EMERK Audiere,
äriregistri kood 80200262)

2015

Yet another audiology day – a collaboration between Audiere, Tartu University Hospital and the Estonian Audiologists' Society – took place in Tartu on 11 November. The event served two purposes: to help students familiarise themselves with the field and to encourage them to apply for the Audiere scholarship; and to summarise what has been done in the past four years in developing audiology.

The opening address of Urmas Siigur, chairman of the board of Tartu University Hospital, was followed by presentations from current grantees Maret Lepplaan and Maris Kruusmaa. The fourth consecutive Audiere scholarship for studying audiology in England will be announced in January 2016.

Pictured: Chairman of the board of Tartu University Hospital Mr Urmas Siigur

Have a look at the pictures.

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In early May a delegation from Tartu University Hospital's Ear Clinic including Dr Priit Kasenõmm, (head of clinic), Dr Katrin Kruustük (audiologist) and Piret Zimmer (programmer) visited the UK. With them were Dr Marek Metsmaa (president of the Estonian NPO Oto-rhino-laryngological Society) and Dr Liina Luht (a board member of the Estonian Audiology Society), who familiarised themselves with the University of Manchester's Master's programme in Audiology. The board of Audiere was represented by Anne Maisvee and Sirle Karu.

In addition to visiting the university we had the chance to visit the Audiology Centre at Manchester Royal Infirmary. A newly opened centre (January 2015), it not only deals with common cochlear implants but is also one of the few in Europe involved in brainstem implant operations.

Maris Kruusmaa, a scholar student from Audiere, will start her clinical practice in September in two of Liverpool's hospitals: Aintree Teaching Hospital and Alder Hey Children's Hospital. Both have professional audiology centres that are engaged in high-level rehabilitation of loss of hearing and balance disorders, serving 1.5 million people in north-west England.

We would like to thank Bridget Skelly, Sheila Fidler, Martin O'Driscoll, Tony Kay and Soumit Dasgupta.

You can take a look at pictures

Maris Kruusmaa, the 2014 scholar student from Audiere, with the head of Tartu University Hospital's Ear Clinic Dr Priit Kasenõmm and head of audiology at Liverpool Aintree Teaching Hospital Tony Kay

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Maris Kruusmaa to continue as 2015/2016 Audiere scholarship recipient

Unfortunately, the 2015 scholarship committee did not find a fully qualifying application among those submitted for the competition and made a unanimous decision not to issue a scholarship for a Master's programme commencing this year.

The scholarship fund will be directed towards financing 2014 recipient Maris Kruusmaa’s emergency clinical practice at Aintree University Hospital in Liverpool in the United Kingdom in the 2015/2016 academic year. This special scholarship will be awarded once and the regular competition for the audiology scholarship will be launched in 2016 in accordance with the statutes of the scholarship.

Avo-Rein Tereping from Tallinn University and Sandra Vill from Tartu University Hospital Ear Clinic
were awarded the Audiology Scholarship for conducting a study of the hearing acuity of Estonian schoolchildren.

The aim of the study is to get an overview of hearing acuity and possible hearing loss among

Estonian schoolchildren. For this, an audiometric screening of Estonian schoolchildren will be

conducted. The target group are 9th grade students. The test group consist of 1000 school students.

Prior to the test, students will be given a 45-minute lecture on the causes of hearing loss and the

risks of hearing loss from listening to music with headphones and loud music in general. The lecture

will also go over general hearing hygiene. All test subjects will receive a non-personalised

(anonymous) written assessment of their hearing acuity as feedback. If the hearing loss is greater

than 30 dB, the parent will be notified.

The study will follow all requirements related to human studies. The personal data of the subject will

not be recorded. Only generalised and statistically processed data will be used for publication.

Descriptive statistical methods will be used to analyse the results of the screening test. The results

will be published in the journal Eesti Arst and in some international journals.

The study has been approved by the Ministry of Education and Research.

The study has been postponed due to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On December 6 the Supervisory Board of the Aadu Luukas Foundation nominated the non-profit organisation Audiere to be one of the six nominees of the Missionary Prize of the Aadu Luukas Foundation in 2012.

This highly valued recognition is accompanied by a monetary award – 6,400 euros – that we have decided to allocate to the Audiology Scholarship Fund. Pursuant to the statutes of the Missionary Prize the award is given to a person or organisation that stands out as a promoter of the balanced development of Estonian society and our nation’s quality of life. By educating young agile audiologists we can fulfil this aim in a manner worthy of the award.

We are grateful to the honourable Supervisory Board for their trust and recognition, and we would like to thank all those who nominated us and all our partners and everyone who takes an active interest in our activities for their continuous support.