The second edition of the Hearing Care for Adults Conference 2009, organised by Phonak last november, focused on the special needs of the elderly. Leading experts in aging and audiology has discussed the latest research and trends in hearing care for older people. While 20% of the global population was more than 60 years old in 2000, 28% will be over 60 in 2020. As a result, hearing care professionals would need to cope with a massive demand of this population with deteriorating hearing. In two and a half days of interactive conference sessions in Chicago, more than 250 clinicians discuss topics such as communication and aging, amplification for older adults, the impact of hearing on dementia, effects of aging on speech perception and the special needs of the elderly, how services and products might be adapted to ideally fit the needs of the elderly and what role early intervention and prevention play. Dr. Patricia Kricos, president-elect of the American Academy of Audiology, shared her impression: "This conference was excellent. It is wonderful to have so many experts in areas of audiology aging at one meeting." Andi Vonlanthen, vice president Advanced Concepts and Technologies, from Phonak AG, Switzerland, spoke of the importance of user ergonomics, signal processing and wireless connectivity in hearing solutions to meet the specific needs of the senior population. “A major challenge for older users is the ability to interact with the hearing systems. The user interfaces need to be designed in such a way that they are intuitive and manually easy to use for any hearing aid user, and especially elderly people.” (Picture: Unittron)