Audiology is a clinical science in areas of auditory and vestibular functions. It involves the assessment and rehabilitation of hearing, balance and related disorders in people from birth to old age. This includes the prevention, identification, assessment and rehabilitation of hearing functions, the selection and evaluation of hearing instrument/prosthesis, and the habilitation/rehabilitation of individuals with hearing and/or vestibular impairment.

Clinical Services

The Audiology Centres at the CUHK Medical Centre, as well as the Prince of Wales Hospital, the two teaching hospitals of the University, provides comprehensive services to individuals of all ages, from infants to adults, who have problems with their hearing and/or balance. We perform a full range of diagnostic procedures including behavioural and physiological, adult and paediatric hearing tests, along with assessments of the vestibular system and balance functions. On the other hand, we also offer various rehabilitative services like evaluation and fitting of conventional hearing aids, assistive listening devices, tinnitus and vestibular rehabilitation therapy, as well as candidacy assessment, fitting, and outcome evaluation of implantable hearing devices.

Teaching

The Division of Audiology participates in the teaching of medical students, ENT nurses, ENT trainees, family medicine trainees, as well as the teaching and professional training of audiologists and speech language pathologists, and the foundational training for students interested in the related area. It is also a centre for academic exchange, where professionals of related fields from Mainland China and overseas countries would come for academic visits and seminars.

Research

Audiology is a fast evolving discipline. Plenty of researches have been undertaken worldwide in the past decades in areas including, but are not limited to, electrophysiologic measurements of neural function, hearing conservation programs, auditory implants, vestibular rehabilitation therapy, tinnitus, speech perception, auditory processing, psychoacoustics, hearing aid design, and the cognitive and psychosocial consequences of hearing loss. The Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery is a local leader in the field of auditory implants. It has been the one of the key research centres for implantable hearing devices in Asia Pacific region, and performed the first auditory brainstem implant and the first bone-anchored hearing aid implantation in patient with nasopharyngeal cancer, who had radiation therapy, in Asia.