This Week in Hearing

This week, Brian Taylor sits down with Darleen Wilson, a writer, musician, and hearing health advocate. Darleen shares her unique journey from being a musician and recording engineer to becoming an advocate for hearing loss. She believes that the hearing industry focuses too heavily on stigma (the S-word) and that this has a negative impact on public perception surrounding hearing loss and use of...

The Giants of Audiology is a segment where host Bob Traynor is joined by some of the profession’s most influential figures. In this week's episode, we are joined by Dr. Marshall Chasin. With an impressive career spanning four decades, Dr. Chasin is widely recognized for his work addressing the unique hearing health challenges faced by musicians. He is the author of over 200 articles and 8 book...

This week, Andy Bellavia interviews fellow co-host Brian Taylor, to discuss the release of Signia's new Integrated Experience (IX) hearing aid platform. The conversation explores the platform's innovative features, including real-time conversation enhancement, advanced beamforming, and its readiness for future technologies like Auracast. Taylor emphasizes the goal of optimizing conversatio...

This week, we explore the world of investigational medicines that have the potential to revolutionize the landscape of hearing healthcare, from restoration to treatment and prevention. Our guest for this insightful discussion is Nawal Ouzren, the CEO of the French biotech firm, Sensorion. With a distinguished career that includes significant roles at Shire and Baxter, Ouzren sheds light on Sensori...

This week, host Amyn Amlani introduces us to Earzz, an innovative sound recognition device and monitoring system. He is joined by the founder of Earzz, Prad Thiruvenkatanathan, who sheds light on the technology's unique capabilities and its potential impact for those with hearing loss. Unlike most other hearing-related technologies that focus on speech or speech in noise, Earzz specializes in...

This week, host Shari Eberts talks with Katie Petruzziello, the author of "Mighty Mila," a children's book that celebrates the adventures of a young girl with cochlear implants. Unlike many traditional hearing loss books, Mighty Mila focuses on showcasing children's abilities and adventures, regardless of their hearing abilities. Katie shares her family's hearing loss journey...

While previous attempts to incorporate health sensors in earbuds faced challenges like comfort, battery drain, and a lack of compelling use cases, there are ongoing developments to overcome these issues. One company, MindMics, has developed technology that allows users to monitor heart rate and other health characteristics acoustically, using the ear canal as a microphone. Dr. Anna Barnacka, the f...

This week, host Dave Kemp is joined by two distinguished researchers from the National Acoustics Laboratory (NAL) in Australia. Dr. Padraig Kittrick and Dr. Paola Incerti, discuss their work on developing the NALguide, a new tool designed to demystify hearing aid technology and features for consumers. The NALguide is the result of a collaborative effort involving engineers, audiologists, and behav...

This week Andy Bellavia is joined by Deaftronics co-founder, Tendekayi Katsiga, and Georgia Tech professor, Dr. Saad Bhamla, to discuss their respective projects aimed at addressing the global crisis of hearing loss. Deaftronics, based in Botswana, designs and manufactures affordable hearing aids that utilize solar power, while promoting awareness and accessibility to hearing care solutions, parti...

This week, host Andy Bellavia is joined by two researchers from the Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Nicholas Reed, AuD, and Kening Jiang, MHS, discuss their research into the complex relationships between hearing loss, fatigue, sleep disturbances, and cognitive decline. Kening Jiang discusses her study on the connection between hearing loss and self-repor...

This week, Dave Kemp is joined by Dr. Daniel Romero and Dr. King Chun, to discuss their experience as part of a humanitarian mission to Poland working with Ukrainian refugees. Along with students and translators, they were able to provide essential audiological services, including hearing assessments, hearing aid fittings and vestibular evaluations and treatment. Looking ahead, they plan to contin...

Falls are one of the costliest mishaps affecting older adults, and there is evidence suggesting a link between age-related hearing loss and falling. Dr. Laura Campos, a clinical audiologist at the University of Colorado, recently joined Brian Taylor to discuss her study's focus on hearing aid usage and the potential for reduced fall risk in older adults. The research revealed that individuals...

This week, Amyn Amlani sits down with Audicus founder and CEO, Patrick Freuler, to discuss direct to consumer hearing care. His company, Audicus, has been providing hearing aids direct to consumers for over 10 years. They discuss how Patrick's background in engineering and healthcare led to the creation of Audicus, and how the company has evolved over the past decade, including its innovative...

This week, Brian Taylor welcomes Professor Christina Roup from The Ohio State University to discuss adults with normal audiograms and self-reported hearing difficulty. The prevalence of this condition is estimated to be around 12-15% in younger and middle-aged adults, with a higher prevalence in older age groups and those with a history of traumatic brain injury. Dr. Rouf reviews some of the lates...

This week, Gael Hannan sits down with Tiffany Storrs, a trilingual actress, advocate, and author of the memoir "Adaptability." She shares her transformation from pain to purpose through faith and determination and describes her experience with sudden hearing loss and two hearing implant surgeries. Tiffany's hearing loss struck suddenly after giving birth, and coming to terms with her...

This week, Dave Kemp and Andrew Bellavia sit down for a conversation about recent rumors that Apple is planning to get further involved into the hearing space and whether or not the company would actually consider producing an OTC hearing aid. Due to Apple's massive size and cultural influence, they discuss how the company could positively influence societal perceptions around treating hearing...

Nicky Chong-White, PhD is a Principal Engineer and leads smart technology innovations at the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL) in Australia. She sits down with Brian Taylor to discuss AirPods Pro as a potential substitute for hearing aids. Recent reports have indicated that Apple might be interested to further enhance the hearing features in its latest devices. Currently, features like Headphon...

This week, Amyn Amlani sits down with Chris Cardinal and Anne Michelle Puglisi from Amptify. They discuss Amptify's innovative digital aural rehabilitation program and the introduction of their new virtual clinic. The aural rehab program includes auditory brain training games, a curriculum, coaching, and group support. The virtual clinic enables patients to schedule remote appointments with au...

A new category of over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in August 2022. This week, we bring you the presentation by Dr. Vinaya Manchaiah, from this year's FHH 2023 conference, taking a closer look at what the data shows about how hearing professionals and consumers view OTC hearing aids and service delivery models. Be sure to subscribe to our...

This week, Andrew Bellavia sits down with Intel's Head of Accessibility, Darryl Adams. They discuss Intel's commitment to improve accessibility for individuals with hearing loss and other disabilities, and the initiatives currently underway at Intel. The company recently announced hearing health collaborations with organizations like 3DP4ME and Accenture, utilizing 3D printing technology t...

Originally presented at the 2023 Future of Hearing Healthcare Conference, Dr. Jacque Scholl, Executive Director & Head of Audiology for Soundwrx and Head of Pediatrics for Tuned, discusses the motivation behind and solution for expanding a telehealth platform for pediatrics. Despite several known barriers to learning in schools, such as hearing loss and mental health issues, no state screens f...

In case you missed it at this year's Future of Hearing Healthcare Conference, Heather Malyuk, AuD, owner of Soundcheck Audiology and Head of Audiology at Tuned, presented an insightful look at hearing conservation needs in the modern workforce. The session delves into the crucial role of audiologists in addressing the unique needs of today's working population. Backed by compelling data fr...

This week, Andrew Bellavia is joined by Simin Soleimanifar, a research scientist and product specialist at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. They explore the Simin's research on the voice perception and control of cochlear implant (CI) users. The study involved recording the voices of 13 individuals with bilateral CI devices and analyzing their ability to control volume variations d...

Bennett Griffin is the executive vice president of research and development for Lucid Hearing. He recently sat down with Brian Taylor to discuss Lucid's unique approach to the market - a strategy that includes both OTC and prescription hearing aids, diagnostic equipment and hearing protection devices. Along with Lucid's vertically integrated strategy, Bennett discusses ADRO signal processi...

In case you missed it at this year's Future of Hearing Healthcare Conference, Chuck Sabin, the Senior Director of Market Development at Bluetooth SIG, presented an excellent overview of Auracast™ broadcast audio, offering important take-aways for hearing professionals and the patients they serve. Auracast™ broadcast audio is a new Bluetooth® capability that is set to be the next generation of...