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A van den Berg Jeths

Publications and source records attributed to A van den Berg Jeths.

4 recordsLinked to original sources

[Developments in the area of hearing aids].

During the past 10-15 years, several techniques have been developed and refined for the treatment of hearing impairment and deafness. The size of hearing aids has been reduced and the sound processing has become more advanced. In the next 20 years sound processing will improve substantially. Although the reduction of size will not continue, the technical possibilities of small hearing aids will improve considerably. These developments will by and large remedy the present shortcomings of hearing aids. The functionality of cochlear implants has improved considerably in recent years, mainly due to improvements in sound processing and it is in this area in particular that improvements are expected during the next 20 years. In the area of bone conducting implants considerable improvements in the apparatus and operating techniques have been made. Minor developments are expected during the next 20 years. As a result of population growth and the aging of the population, the number of hearing aid users will probably multiply in the next 20 years from 380,000 to 523,000. The number of implant users will probably increase in this period. The bulk of the total costs for hearing devices will continue to be the supply of hearing aids.

Bone Conduction↗

[Progress in the field of medical devices for diabetes].

In the eighties major improvements were made in insulin injection and home blood glucose monitoring. However, in the nineties further improvements were rather disappointing. Despite considerable effort, non-invasive, continuous monitoring glucose sensors are still not ready for marketing. It will take 10-20 years before 'closed-loop systems' will appear, with the amount of insulin released by the pump adjusted automatically on the basis of the measuring results of a permanently implanted blood glucose sensor. Islet cell transplantation, if possible in a way that abolishes the need to take immunosuppressive medicines, is still under development. The number of people suffering from diabetes in the Netherlands is estimated to increase from about 285,400 in 1999 to about 400,000 in 2020. The costs of medical devices for diabetes will probably double in 2020. However, increased costs for devices may improve the quality of life and may result in decreased expenditure in other parts of health care by reducing the long-term complications.

Blood Glucose Self-Monitoring↗

['Public health status and perspectives' 1997. II. Developments in health status].

As a part of the report 'Public health status and forecasts' 1997 recent developments in the health status of the Dutch population and its determinants are described. Developments until the year 2015 are forecast on the basis of expected demographic and epidemiologic trends, according to expert opinions. Important findings are the unfavourable trends in lifestyle factors in adolescents and the expected increase by 25-60% in 2015 of the prevalence of diseases of old age like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, dementia, chronic nonspecific lung diseases, visual and hearing impairments and diseases of the locomotor system.

Adolescent↗