MEET THE PEOPLE…
We would like to introduce the IHHAPP team.
- James (Jim) Saunders, MD is a professor of Otology and Neurotology at the Geisel Medical School at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center.
- Debra Fried, MS, CCC-A is an audiologist who manages audiology and newborn hearing screening programs at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City.
- David Molter, MD is professor of Otolaryngology and a pediatric otolaryngologist at Washington University in St. Louis.
- Ron Brouillette, Ph.D. currently serves as a teacher and deaf educational consultant who has been developing affordable hearing health solutions in low-income countries for over 30 years.
- Anita Stein-Meyers, Au.D., CCC-A is a pediatric audiologist and Assistant Director of the Shelley and Steven Einhorn Audiology Center at the Center for Hearing and Communication in New York.
Each of us participates in medical mission work . Some are board members of Mayflower Medical Outreach and all are active in the Coalition for Global Hearing Health. Mayflower Medial Outreach ( MMO) is our hosting organization. MMO is a US based NGO providing hearing care and deaf education services in rural Nicaragua since 1998.
MEET IHHAPP … 
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 466 million people (over 5% of the world population) have disabling hearing impairment. The vast majority of these individuals live in resource-poor countries, where access to audiology services is limited. There is an estimated need for 7 million hearing aids in developing countries, yet fewer than 1 million people have use of this technology. While the reasons for this paucity of hearing aid fittings are complex, one of the major barriers to providing hearing aids has been their high cost.
Many individuals and humanitarian organizations work to address this unmet need by providing hearing aid services to low resource environments. The International Humanitarian Hearing Aid Purchasing Program (IHHAPP) was created to support these programs by making high-quality low-cost hearing aids available to qualified members. Purchases are made through special agreements with manufacturers.
IHHAPP uses the United Nations Human Development Index ( HDI) to determine country eligibility. HDI is a composite statistic of life expectancy, education and per capita income indicators which are used to rank countries into four tiers of human develoment. Countries ranked as low, medium and high are eligible for participation in the IHHAPP program. Countries ranked as very high are not eligible.
The IHHAPP team looks forward to working with you to enhance access to hearing care worldwide.