At the beginning of 2000, the two historic European audiology journals (the British Journal of Audiology, published since 1967, and Scandinavian Audiology, published since 1972) merged with the “American” journal (Audiology, published since 1971, the heir of International Audiology, published from 1962 to 1970) to create the International Journal of Audiology (IJA); at that point the “medical” component of Audiology, which already published its own journal (the Journal of Audiological Medicine published by Whurr from 1992 to 2002) posed the problem of whether to channel its voice within the IJA or to make the clinical/medical aspects of audiology more widely known. The invitation of Taylor & Francis, who already published IJA, to refound their journal was accepted and Audiological Medicine was thus born. At that time we decided to enhance the differences between Audiological Medicine and the other journals covering this field, taking into account:
The founding inspiration of the international Association of Physicians in Audiology (IAPA) which had been conceived as a forum of Clinicians
The necessity for our associates of Continuing Medical Education
The opportunity to broaden the journal to encompass a wider scientific field (i.e. by including communication disorders)
The great development of the discipline outside Europe (particularly in Egypt, but especially in China), also led to greater attention being paid to both vestibular and communication aspects. In 2013, after the IAPA congress in Beijing, Audiological Medicine became Hearing, Balance & Communication.
The question was: do we need a journal that simultaneously considers matters of hearing, balance and communication? The answer was YES.
Although there are many scientific journals dedicated to “Audiological” issues, there is a high prevalence of pathological events affecting children, adults and, in particular, elderly patients that involve at the same time hearing, balance and communication.
Two Nobel prize winners fundamentally revolutionised our fields; Robert Bárány (1914) “for his work on the physiology and pathology of the vestibular apparatus” and Georg von Békésy (1961), “for discovering traveling waves in the cochlea”, but this was a long time ago.
A dramatic change in hospital and community healthcare medicine in the past century has been the rise of the medical specialties. But what is the situation today? What type of specialist is needed today in the field of Hearing, Balance and Communication (HBC) disorders?
Technologies have changed how audio-vestibular medicine is practiced today. Thanks to pioneers like William House, MD, cochlear implants have now restored partial hearing to more than 500,000 deaf people worldwide and we are close to achieving similar results in severe vestibular impairment through the use of “vestibular implants”. The clinical diagnostic approach has been transformed in recent years, but we are still waiting for stable data for the treatment of the majority of hearing and vestibular disorders.
Diagnosis has increasingly improved over the last 50 years, both with objective measures and through imaging, resulting in the early detection and accurate classification of auditory and vestibular disorders from the ear to the brain. Telemedicine and personalised medicine will be cheaper, more convenient and perhaps provide a better service than that of the present model.
There is a clear need for a shared space or forum for discussing the medical and scientific rehabilitative aspects of hearing, balance and communication disorders and there is no other scientific journal dedicated to this clinical and reserch area. We also need a “place” in which to discuss, translationally, the result of basic research on restoring hearing and balance through biological/pharmaceutical means such as gene therapy and stem cells to regenerate inner ear cells and neurons.
In these 7 years the journal has grown considerably and we felt the need to modify some of its aspects, with the hope of improving it and further increasing its relevance and diffusion.
The journal will be structured in 3 regular issues and a special issue dedicated to innovations: to new approaches to hearing disorders in 2020; to balance disorders in 2021; and to communication disorders in 2022.
The regular issue provides for a review article, a research article, an article dedicated to “imaging” (related to hearing, balance and communication), letters, book reviews and a “historical” article dedicated to the anniversaries of prominent figures in the field (this year, for example, we are celebrating the “twenties” and the article in this issue is dedicated to Théophile Bonet, 1620 – 1689, the deaf Author of “De Aurium Affectibus”; another issue will include an article dedicated to Adam Politzer, to give another example).
The structure of the editorial board was also reorganised, with 6 associated editors dedicated to particular areas of the journal.
We are confident that HBC will become a must in departments and clinics of audiovetibular medicine, otology, hearing and speech/human communication rehabilitation centres, research institutes and libraries.
We encourage all of you to submit contributions.
Editor-in-Chief HBCNeurosciences Department, Università degli Studi di Padova
[email protected]