Prevention

One of the core objectives of the Hearing Center of Excellence is to prevent hearing loss among Warriors and Service members, and Veterans. As part of this overarching goal, it is vital to have a framework and tools in place to monitor the effectiveness of prevention and treatment measures.

The Prevention and Surveillance Branch, which was established to lead this effort, assumes the following responsibilities:

• Work in concert with hearing conservation leaders
• Provide epidemiological evidence to support and sustain current effective measures
• Advocate effective surveillance standardization throughout the Department of Defense, or DoD
• Provide an education agenda and resources to enhance understanding of tinnitus and hearing loss, empower user participation and compliance, and promote personal accountability by each service member or Veteran for their hearing health, and
• Ensure information gathered from Service members and Veterans with service-related hearing and auditory injuries is available to appropriate DoD and Department of Veterans Affairs personnel in order to optimize prevention strategies