Assoc. Professor Valerie Sung is leading an innovative project to develop the foundations of a national registery to help deaf and hard of hearing children access the services and supports they need to thrive.

Early diagnosis of hearing loss and access to high-quality, timely services supports the health, development, wellbeing and learning of deaf and hard of hearing children.

However, some families experience barriers to accessing timely care, which may prevent children from getting the hearing services and supports they need.

Assoc. Prof Sung is leading a project with more than 30 collaborating organisations to set the foundation for child hearing service providers and researchers in Australia to collect similar child hearing health information. This will enable linking of routinely collected information via a national registry in the future. This program aims to help more children reach their development, learning and health potential by identifying children who need additional services and uncovering areas for service, system and practice improvement.

A national registry could also help us to better understand the effectiveness of specific hearing interventions and screening practices and identify the needs of differing populations of deaf and hard of hearing children.

For more information visit ANCHOR: Australian National Child Hearing Health Outcomes Registry or contact Ms Libby Smith and Associate Professor Valerie Sung on anchor@mcri.edu.au.

The ANCHOR study is funded by a National Health and Medical Research Council grant.