In 1979, Dr. Jeff Danhauer started Hearing Consultants of California (HCC) as a vehicle to provide the community with superlative hearing healthcare. HCC provided a way for him to apply his academic, research, and publishing expertise to helping patients with hearing loss and their families. He has been a professor at the University of California Santa Barbara, since 1978, and has served as chair of the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences for over the past decade. HCC was started partly based on the desire to give his research students an opportunity to obtain and collect data for a variety of research projects while also observing real-world clinical experience (see links to some example articles on the HCC website). Today, Dr. Danhauer’s students still gain valuable research and clinical observation experiences interacting with HCC’s patients of all ages, which are beneficial to the students, and the patients and their families.
In 1983, his wife, Kim, joined the practice and together the Danhauers made HCC a strong, small, family business that mainly served patients in the Lompoc area. Previously, Kim worked for an audiologic equipment distributor and hearing aid manufacturers and was very instrumental in bringing state-of-the-art, technologically advanced equipment to HCC. This combination allowed the Danhauers to bring the latest and greatest technologies and services to their patients. For example, HCC was one of the first clinical practices in the country to include otoacoustic emission testing as a routine component of their hearing test battery. This test is now the most used technology for identifying hearing loss in newborns and young children, as well as difficult-to-test patients of any age.
In 1999, their son, Tate, joined the practice and greatly expanded HCC with the addition of a Santa Barbara office, thereby furthering the family business’ presence in the Lompoc and Santa Barbara/Goleta communities. Tate’s command of all areas of audiology and expertise in auditory brainstem response and electronystagmography testing as well as cutting edge hearing aid fittings have greatly enhanced the services that HCC provides to patients of all ages.
Merging their different backgrounds in research, academia, business, and clinical audiology, the Danhauers bring a comprehensive philosophy toward making their family hearing practice the best it can be.The Danhauers believe that this unique chemistry along with a caring family-first approach sets HCC apart from other practices. The Danhauers have helped literally thousands of patients with their hearing problems and look forward to serving many more in the future. They believe in their saying that “We are here to help you hear.”