NEW! The Virtual Medical Library Hearing and Balance Specialty Guide is now live! 

The virtual medical library Hearing and Balance Specialty Guide provides access to high-quality, evidence-based medical, nursing, and allied health information resources for Military Health System personnel. It is broken down into subtopics (i.e., NIHL, tinnitus, BA, APD, etc.) and each subtopic has information pertaining to various resources, books and articles, reports and presentations, and working groups. 

The Defense Health Agency's Hearing Center of Excellence works to improve hearing and balance health.

Our Goals

• Improve hearing health
• Enhance operational performance
• Optimize readiness
• Enhance service members and veterans quality of life

We work with the Department of Veterans Affairs to achieve our goals in partnership with:

• Federal health care organizations
• Universities
• Public and private institutions

Congressional Mandate

The HCE was created by Congress through the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2009 to address military hearing injuries. This work includes:

• Prevention
• Diagnosis
• Mitigation
• Treatment
• Rehabilitation
• Research

Our primary focus and responsibilities include:

• Developing a data registry to track military hearing loss and auditory injuries
• Encouraging and facilitating hearing health research
• Developing best practices and clinical education
• Promoting and implementing hearing loss prevention strategies

Our Structure

We're a section of the DHA Medical Affairs Directorate. We're led by a branch chief and deputy branch chief. We have service audiology liaisons from the Army, Navy, and Air Force. They connect HCE to the field to address operational needs and problems.