President Elect Nominee
Professional Background:
M.D., specialized in ENT and in Phoniatrics and Pediatric Audiology.
Past ISA activity:
Individual membership since 2017 and updated on June 29 2024, participation in world conferences (Innsbruck 2006, Sao Paulo 2010, Cape Town 2018, Paris 2024).
Past activity Presence at World Congress of Audiology meetings:
Presentations at WCAs in Innsbruck 2006, Sao Paulo 2010, Cape Town 2018, Paris 2024; data collection for the survey on the global status of newborn and infant hearing screening (Neumann, …Chadha et al. 2020, 2021, 2022) supported by ISA.
Contribution to hearing science/healthcare:
KN is audiological advisor in the Prevention of Deafness and Hearing Loss Programme and in the Rehabilitation Programme of the WHO and represent the German Society of Audiology, the German Society of Phoniatrics and Pediatric Audiology, the Union of European Phoniatricians (UEP), and the International Association of Communication Sciences and Disorders (IALP) in the World Hearing Forum (WHF) of the WHO.
She belongs to the External Relations Working Group of the WHF. She contributed to several WHO publications, among others to the World Report on Hearing (2021), Hearing screening - considerations for implementation (2021) Childhood hearing loss: strategies for prevention and care (2016), Planning & monitoring of national strategies: a manual (2016), Ear and hearing care: situation analysis tool (2016), Neonatal and Infant Hearing Screening. Current Issues and Guiding Principles for Action (2010).
Together with her team, she has implemented a Universal Newborn Hearing Screening (UNHS) in the State of Hesse, which was the model project in Germany (Neumann et al. 2006, 2009, Boettcher et al. 2009) and published, among others, by the WHO (2010) and which was the national basis for the implementation of a UNHS in Germany. For the latter she worked 8 years for Germany’s Federal Joint Committee as the person responsible for children's hearing and speech, which developed and published the legal regulations for the national UNHS program and monitors it by regular evaluations.
She chairs the Association of German Hearing Screening Centers since its foundation in 2009. As volunteering for the WHO KN was often involved in the WHO work on Newborn Hearing Screening (NHS). Over several years she has collected the worldwide NHS data of 158 countries and published them together with Shelly Chadha from the WHO and with many international authors; Neumann et al. 2019, 2020, 2022). She helped to implement NHS in China, the Philippines, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and were or am advisor in other countries such as Chile, Georgia, and Uzbekistan. At current, she works on the UNHS- implementation in Indonesia.
KN coordinates or has coordinated several research projects, among the latter one on implementation of a universal hearing screening, diagnostics, treatment, and monitoring program for people with intellectual disabilities and one on the potential implementation of a neonatal CMV-screening in Germany and Qatar.
Expected ISA contribution if elected to the board:
As a member of the ISA Executive Board (EB), I would accept any of
the open roles or positions that are up for election. I can imagine any
of the open positions, as I am broad-based and experienced in
organizational and leadership roles. These include the
Representative of Affiliated Societies, the Members-at-Large
representative for Africa/Middle East and Europe, but also the
Secretary-General or the President Elect (if I am considered worthy and qualified).
Of course, I would be willing to attend the six-weekly EB meetings, answer emails immediately and work with the other EB members, committees, and working groups in a trusting and fruitful manner. I would also be involved in the coordination and organization of the next World Congress(es) of Audiology. I would be committed to an international and interdisciplinary exchange and to opening up the topic of ear and hearing health to external groups of people.
Furthermore, I can imagine helping to shape and innovatively promote ISA activities in the following areas:
1. Implementation of universal newborn hearing screening (UNHS) programs and the corresponding tracking and data collection structures, including the establishment and promotion of pediatric audiological follow-up and service structures, as called for in the 2017 WHO Resolution on Ear and Hearing Care. This seems important to me in view of the fact that the WHO has defined the increase in the implementation of such UNHS programs as one of the three tracer indicators of countries' progress in Ear and Hearing Care.
2. I would advocate—in collaboration with the working group CAN-SIG—the greater implementation of telemedical structures (teleaudiometry, telefitting, telemonitoring of treatments, and telerehabilitation), as this is in line with the increasing need for networking and digitalization. I coordinate several respective research projects.
3. I would utilize my many international contacts from newborn hearing screening to stimulate further epidemiological large- scale data collection, e.g., on the prevalence of hearing disorders according to age, kind, side, and grade of hearing loss. This would meet the need for a new prevalence determination according to the new WHO classification of grades of hearing loss. Collaboration with the Global Audiology working group seems essential for this topic.
4. I want to promote the provision of hearing technology for older people with hearing loss, help overcome barriers to it, and involve those affected in hearing and communication training and rehabilitation programs. I consider the activities of the Hearing in Later Life Working Group an excellent prerequisite for advancing this topic.
5. I would strive for equity in the availability of hearing technology for people with hearing impairment, in line with the 2017 WHO resolution and the 2015 Sustainable Development Goals and universal health coverage, e.g. by motivating health ministries or
organizations to make bulk purchases.
6. I would try to advance other topics relevant to population medicine. These include the implementation of universal hearing screening, diagnostics, treatment, and monitoring programs for people with intellectual disabilities, a population group with more than 40% prevalence of hearing loss.
