The National Institute of Health offered a tour of its facilities to representatives of the Friends of the Congressional Hearing Health Caucus. During the tour, a number of doctors on NIH staff provided an overview of the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders, a part of the NIH that conducts and supports research in the normal and disordered processes of hearing, balance, taste, smell, voice, speech, and language. The tour also included information on NIDCD’s intramural research program and an overview of the NIDCD’s labs. NIH has more than 800 scientists in 85 laboratories around the country.
More than 30 professionals involved in advocating for issues that affect people with hearing impairments attended the event. Brandon Schall, NCRA’s Government Relations Specialist, attended as NCRA’s representative. The Congressional caucus, which aims to broaden support and knowledge of hearing health care issues within Congress and provide an educational setting for discussion of issues related to hearing health, is co-chaired by Reps. Tom Latham of Iowa, and Carolyn McCarthy of New York. NCRA is one a dozen affiliated Friends of the caucus.
