Air Force Audiologists Visit UC's FETCHLAB

A dozen audiologists with the United States Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine recently visited the Facility for the Education and Testing of Canine Hearing and Laboratory for Animal Bioacoustics (FETCHLAB) at the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Allied Health Sciences (CAHS) as part of the 2017 Air Force Military Audiology Workshop (MAW). The audiologists observed audiology tests in FETCHLAB as well as presentations from CAHS faculty including Pete Scheifele, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, and FETCHLAB director.

2017 marks the third year the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio has hosted a MAW.

"To make it interesting every year, we reach out to other organizations to see what they’re doing and how it can affect our practice,” says Jessica Zerbe, an audiologist at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. "We thought FETCHLAB sounded interesting and we reached out to Pete. This is great, and is definitely something that is new to audiology as a career.”

FETCHLAB, founded by Scheifele in 2008, was the first institution in the world to have the capability to teach animal audiology. The clinic provides audiology services to dogs and gives students an opportunity to conduct baseline research. 

Of the 12 Air Force audiologists visiting FETCHLAB, one was from England and the others were from Air Force bases around the U.S. The visitors saw a demonstration of canine audiology tests at FETCHLAB on three Boston terrier puppies brought in by a breeder from Lexington, Kentucky. 

Following the audiology tests, Scheifele presented "Animal Audiology, Our Military and You: It’s a FETCHLAB Thing.” He reported on the current state of animal audiology and how it relates to military canine audiology.

The group also saw presentations by CAHS faculty Brian Earl, PhD, and Fawen Zhang, MD, PhD, and their PhD students. Earl and Ivy Schweinzger gave a presentation titled "Using Signal-in-Noise Electrophysiology to Detect Noise-Induced Hidden Hearing Loss.” Zhang and Chun Liang presented "Pitch Change Detection Reflected by the Acoustic Change Complex in Cochlear Implant Users.” 

According to Scheifele, the group from Wright-Patterson Air Force Base enjoyed the visit enough, they are already planning a return trip for their 2018 MAW.