Research capacity development and training.

The HSRC was awarded a large core grant specifically for research capacity development and training, with the aim of facilitating future high quality HSR in the UK. This was used to pursue three main areas of activity. First, the provision of small grants to facilitate the development of new work, help create new, multidisciplinary groupings and support junior researchers.

What does "disability" mean for medical students? An exploration of the words medical students associate with the term "disability".

Context: Disability teaching is a core theme in undergraduate medical education. Medical students bring a range of experiences of disability to their medical training.

Aim: The principal aim of this study was to explore the words that medical students associate with the term "disability" and to consider how the resulting information could inform teaching.

A critical review of the role of neonatal hearing screening in the detection of congenital hearing impairment.

Background: This review was commissioned because of the increasing doubt about the ability of existing screening programmes (mainly the health visitor distraction test (HVDT) at 7-8 months) to identify children with congenital hearing impairment, and technological advances which have made neonatal hearing screening an alternative option.

Objectives: To review the available literature on the screening of permanent childhood hearing impairment. To provide commissioners and providers of health care with information about how to deliver a more uniform service, better outcomes, and more cost-effective screening.

The effects of hearing loss and age of intervention on some language metrics in young hearing-impaired children.

This study examined the oral language production abilities of a group of young children with bilateral sensorineural hearing impairments (greater than 25 dB HL). The effects of age of intervention-as indexed by age of detection, referral, first appointment and hearing-aid fitting-and of the severity of their hearing impairments on spoken language and communication were the foci of the study. Children were aged between 27 and 80 months with hearing threshold levels ranging from 32 to 98 dB in the better ear.