In the March/April 2020 issue of Audiology Today, the magazine published by the American Academy of Audiology, an article titled, “Party Like it’s 1999,” featured a comparison of 1999 predictions on the future of the audiology profession from top leaders in audiology with today’s 2020 professional status. Revealing their hindsight perspective on those predictions, the authors humbly and humorously fessed-up to whether they were on or off the mark of where audiology would be 20 years into this new millennium. The reflection views on the then versus now are enlightening.
Lisa Hunter, Ph.D., professor at the University of Cincinnati, cautiously remarked that 20 years ago she predicted that the doctoral status of audiologists would grow slowly into the title through the integration of evolved procedures that define best practices in audiology. Unfortunately, commenting on her current students’ externship experiences, she indicated that to her things had not progressed in hearing care at all stating, “By and large, these students are witnessing audiology practices similar to what I saw 30 or more years ago.” The tone in the statement reflects caution in the lack of progression in the profession. In a similar light, David Fabry, Ph.D., Editor in Chief of Audiology Today, commented that, “Telemedicine is easier than ever and yet clinicians have not adopted it widely as a means to combat commoditization of their role in hearing health care.”
Dr. Fabry’s sentence springboards the discussion of, “Can I still party like it’s 1999 in 2020?” Well, “not really” is the answer. However, you can party like it’s 2020 in 2020.


About the Author

Suzanne Younker, Au.D. is a 30-year audiologist with extensive experience in Quality Assurance, Customer Service, and Operations in the corporate environment. In the past 7-years, Dr. Younker has devoted her career to cultivating full-service TeleHealth/TeleAudiology methods in the hearing healthcare industry including research, education, protocol development, implantation, provider and facilitator training, and patient engagement techniques. Currently, Dr. Younker is the Director of TeleHealth for Your Hearing Network, leading a team with a turnkey solution for a modern method of healthcare towards a successful outcome for your practice.