A brief history of audiology at Mayo Clinic

Audiometric hearing tests were conducted at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester at the beginning of the 1930s. The list price for one of its audiometers at that time was 3,500 dollars, which translates into approximately 37,000 dollars in 2003 currency. Physicians and residents in training were responsible for conducting hearing tests in the 1930s and 1940s. In the early 1940s a registered nurse was trained as an audiometrist to assist for some of the audiometric testing. The first "consulting audiologist" at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester was hired in 1949, early in the development of audiology as a profession. Growth in demand for audiologic services for larger numbers of patients and in the variety of services provided to them led to marked increases in personnel, space, and specialization over the years.