The field of audiological medicine has ridden the wave of technological advancement that has transformed many aspects of screening and intervention in medicine. We can screen newborns for hearing loss, however we are not sure what is the most cost effective and simple method. A screening test that can be referred to as the “golden standard”, still eludes us. With the incidence of permanent bilateral clinically significant hearing loss at just over 1 in 1000 births,^1,2 the need for a simple, inexpensive, and reliable screening method is evident.

The importance of diagnosing hearing loss at an early stage led to screening originally of “at risk” groups in the form of a targeted screening programme. This approach has proved to be effective as over half of hearing impaired and deaf children can be identified. To identify the other half of hearing impaired children, universal newborn screening programmes are being used in countries including the UK. Various combinations of oto-acoustic emissions and auditory brain stem tests singly or in combination have been successfully tried. Early fitting of technically sophisticated hearing aids …