I plan to make a slight alteration in the topic listed on your program today and the reason for this is that lately I have seen very clearly the ease with which tinnitus has been considered as only a local ear disorder. No-one can deny, or even dare to deny, that medical and psychologic factors in a patient's personal make-up greatly effect the severity of the tinnitus and his response to it. And yet, I’ve repeatedly heard over the course of the past month the complaint of non-physicians who have said: ‘Why do you require an otologic evaluation at the University of Oregon; we’re just as qualified to see this patient as anyone else’. I think the reason is clear and irrefutable; that tinnitus is a medical disorder and the evaluation of tinnitus without a medical evaluation is poor medicine. The subtleties of diabetes, and thyroid disease and hyperlipidemia, and hypertension and drug reaction and allergies, are all easily enough overlooked by a physician, not to say how frequently they might be overlooked by others.