Experienced Chief Consultant from the Hearing Clinic becomes professor of audiology at SDU

By Marianne Lie Becker, mlbecker@health.sdu.dk, 3/21/2024

Jesper Hvass Schmidt (49) has been appointed Clinical Professor at SDU within audiology; the field of ear-nose-throat diseases that deals with hearing.

Jesper Hvass Schmidt earned his medical degree from the University of Southern Denmark in 2002 and later became a specialist in ear-nose-throat diseases in 2013. Since his specialist recognition in 2013, Jesper Hvass Schmidt has been employed at the Ear-Nose-Throat/Hearing Clinic at Odense University Hospital, and from 2016 as a senior physician in the same place. Concurrently with his role as chief consultant, Jesper Hvass Schmidt has been affiliated with the University of Southern Denmark as a clinical associate professor, where he teaches about hearing and balance diseases in the master's programs in Medicine and Audiology.

Jesper Hvass Schmidt has a PhD from the University of Southern Denmark, which he defended in 2011. The topic of his PhD thesis was hearing loss and hearing problems among classical symphony orchestra musicians in Denmark. The work on hearing damage in musicians led, after the specialist medical training, to work on hearing impairments and the implementation of research results in clinical work, where Jesper Hvass Schmidt was instrumental in starting the Clinic for Musician's Health, an offer at Odense University Hospital for professional musicians.

The research is largely centered around noise, which can be both hearing-damaging and non-hearing-damaging, as a potential risk factor for hearing and the development of diseases such as dementia. Jesper Hvass Schmidt has published several research articles on these topics. Based on the research into musicians' hearing damage, subsequent and ongoing research has also dealt with the consequences of noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus in relation to the benefits of hearing aids.

Patients' benefits from hearing aids and cochlear implants are also central areas for the clinical research into hearing diseases at Odense University Hospital and SDU. A significant part of this research has been conducted through a large national collaboration project between universities, hospitals, and industry, the Better Hearing Rehabilitation Study (BEAR), and currently also through the ongoing User-operated Audiometry (UAud) project, where Jesper Hvass Schmidt is responsible for the project at Odense University Hospital and the University of Southern Denmark, where he also mentors PhD students and other researchers associated with the project.

UAud allows patients to conduct a hearing test themselves, thus facilitating an easier path to a hearing examination and hearing aid. To improve patients' conditions and benefits from treatment with hearing aids and cochlear implants, innovation and the establishment of new test methods and treatments have been a central motivating factor for the driving force behind research projects and the development of treatment and examination options.

About Jesper Hvass Schmidt

Privately, Jesper Hvass Schmidt is married, has two children, and resides in Odense. His leisure time is spent on running, the leisure interests of his children, socializing with family and friends, relaxing at the summer house, and enjoying experiences of cultural, historical, or gastronomical nature. Vacations are often spent in Norway for skiing, and usually in Southern Europe or more distant destinations, where there is often an opportunity to experience nature or historically interesting places.