This Week in Hearing

This week, Shari Eberts sits down with Keenan Tully, a professional race car driver and founder of unDEAFeated. Keenan grew up with hearing loss and was bullied throughout his schooling in England. In 2021, he moved to the US to chase his dream of becoming a professional race car driver In 2022, he launched unDEAFeated to raise awareness about hearing loss and inspire people of all ages to follow...

Win Cramer, CEO of JLab, a growing top-5 headphone brand globally, joins host Andrew Bellavia to discuss their hearing health products launched at CES in January. JLab is the first major consumer audio brand to focus on hearing loss prevention and treatment. Given their sheer size and popularity with a younger demographic than that of traditional hearing aid companies, JLab’s entry into the hearin...

This week, Bob Traynor sits down with Dan Schumaier, PhD, the founder of Ear Technology Corporation. He is the inventor of several products in use today in the hearing industry, including the Dry N Store hearing aid dryer and he currently holds about 400 patents worldwide. Dr. Schumaier was one of the very first audiologists in the country to dispense hearing aids and has run a successful private...

This week, Dave Kemp interviews Dr. Jacqueline Scholl, Dr. Nina Kraus, and Oklahoma State Representative Meloyde Blancett to discuss the shortcomings of the current hearing testing methods for children in schools. Dr. Scholl shares her personal experience with her son who was initially misdiagnosed with ADHD but later found to have a significant auditory processing disorder. She also talks about h...

This week, Bob Traynor sits down with Cliff Olson, AuD, who is best known as 'Dr. Cliff' on his popular YouTube channel where he has been providing consumers with information about hearing health and hearing technology since 2017. Dr. Olson is a private practice owner and founder of the HearingUP Network and recently announced a partnership with Audigy to launch a new online consumer resou...

Lucid Hearing and Independa have announced the launch of a smart TV-based hearing assessment on LG Smart TVs. This week, Bennett Griffin, executive vice president of research and development for Lucid Hearing, sits down with Dr. Amy Sarow to discuss why his company is eyeing smart TVs as a non-threatening way to address hearing health to the average consumer. The new hearing assessment is availabl...

This week, host Dave Kemp sits down with AAVAA's Chief Technical Officer, Naeem Komeilipoor. The Montreal-based startup recently completed a $2.0 million Seed Round which will fund the continued development and commercialization of its unique, patented technology that "aims to revolutionize human-machine interactivity and human-assistance devices". The company's technology platfo...

This week, host Andrew Bellavia is joined by Dave Fabry, the Chief Innovation Officer of Starkey Hearing Technologies. In this episode, the pair discuss the development of the newly launched Genesis AI hearing aids. The Genesis AI boasts an entirely new chip, compression algorithm, fitting formula, a new app and new professional fitting software. Overall, the Genesis platform is intended to provid...

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. Richard Tyler - considered one of the foremost experts in the areas of tinnitus and hyperacusis. He is currently a Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology - Head & Neck Surgery and the Department of Communication Sciences...

This week, Dave Kemp sits down with Juliette Sterkens, AuD, and Susan Taulia, AuD, to about hearing loops. Dr. Sterkens is the HLAA National Hearing Loop Advocate and Dr. Taulia is a private practice owner in Lafayette, Indiana.    A hearing loop is a technology that wirelessly transmits audio signals directly to a hearing aid's telecoil, providing clear and high-quality sound with low i...

This week, host Andrew Bellavia is joined by Xinke Liu, co-founder of direct-to-consumer hearing aid company, Orka. The company was founded in 2018 with the aim of creating a more user-friendly and accessible hearing aid experience.    Liu explains that a convergence of factors made it the right time to start Orka, such as the passage of the OTC legislation, enhanced technological capabi...

Meneire's disease is one of the toughest conditions for otolaryngologists to successfully treat. In this episode, Hugo Peris, CEO of Spiral Therapeutics and their Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Charles Limb, shed light on their company's clinical trials involving a new drug delivery system for treatment of Meniere's disease.    Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest episo...

According to the Hearing Health Foundation, tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, affects over 25 million Americans and 90% of cases occur with an underlying degree of hearing loss.  In this episode, Dave Kemp sits down with Gemma Gray, AuD, the Director of Learning and Development for Hearing Care Professionals at HearUSA. They discuss the science behind tinnitus, its prevalence and how it can b...

The theme for this year's World Hearing Day, which takes place annually on March 3, is 'Ear and hearing care for all!'. The annual event put on by the World Health Organization (WHO) is a way to bring global awareness to the importance of hearing health.  In this week's special episode, host Amyn Amlani is joined by Dr. Shelly Chadha, the Technical Lead for Ear & Hearing Care at the WHO....

In this episode, Bob Traynor explores Maudey, an internet-based solution for hearing aid education and remote patient care. He is joined by Alan Letzt, CEO of Maudey, Maureen Wiskerchen, the Director of Audiology, and Dr. Tom Powers, the Executive Audiology Consultant.   They discuss how Maudey is designed to benefit hearing aid users, their families, and hearing professionals by providi...

Dr. Rene Gifford, professor in the hearing and speech science department at Vanderbilt University and MD/PhD student, Ansley Kunneth, join Brian Taylor for a wide-ranging conversation on how auditory regenerative medications could change the way Audiology is practiced.    They also share the details of a clinical trial involving donepezil, a drug that improves cognitive function in Alzhe...

Last October, the Sound Sensation Music Festival took place in Vienna, Austria, with deaf and hard of hearing musicians from around the world participating in performances and workshops. Roy Smith, a 74-year-old local musician from Chapel Hill, represented the USA in the festival.   In this episode, Shari Eberts sits down with Roy Smith and Johanna Boyer, a musicologist and research asso...

MIT spinout, Xander, recently unveiled its first product at CES 2023 in Las Vegas. XanderGlasses are powered by Vuzix smart glasses and display real-time captions of in-person conversations to help people with hearing loss. In this augmented reality experience, captions are displayed seamlessly right in the field of view of the wearer.   In this episode, host Amyn Amlani talks with Xander's C...

VA Audiologist Steve Huart, AuD, sits down with Brian Taylor to talk about the collaborative 5 M’s approach to geriatric care and what it means to age healthily. Dr. Huart describes how audiology is part of a multi-disciplinary approach at the VA and provides background on the Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center (GRECC).   References:   5Ms of Working with Older Adults: Impl...

The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) recently took place in Las Vegas, Nevada, where companies across the globe had the opportunity to showcase a range of new and emerging technologies.    This week, host Dave Kemp is joined by Andy Bellavia, Founder of AuraFuturity, and Kevin Liebe, AuD, President and CEO of HHTM, to discuss their recent experience at CES, where a number of audio...

The Giants of Audiology is a segment where host Bob Traynor will be joined by some of the profession’s most influential figures. In this week's episode, we are joined by Dr. Frank Musiek - a renowned hearing researcher, scholar, teacher and clinical audiologist. His research career has contributed in a substantial way to our fundamental understanding of the anatomy, physiology and neurophysiology...

Over the past two decades, the audiology workforce has not been keeping pace with an aging population that is increasingly in need of hearing and balance services. When compared to the growth rates of other similar allied health professions during that time, audiology's lack of growth is troubling.   In this episode, host Dave Kemp talks with Dr. Victor Bray about the recently published audio...

This week, Tim Schnell, Founder and CEO of Lucid Hearing, sits down with Brian Taylor to discuss Lucid Hearing's wide range of products including both prescription and OTC hearing aids, hearing protection and other devices. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest episodes each week, and follow This Week in Hearing on LinkedIn and Twitter:  https://www.linkedin.com/comp...

Nearly one year ago, Drs. Kevin Frank and Carl LeBel were on TWiH to discuss the exciting possibilities of regenerative medicine in hearing and the incredible progress, Frequency Therapeutics, has made on understanding the potential of applying it to clinical practice.    This week they joined Brian Taylor to update us on two clinical trials and how the results of these two trials could...

In November, GN announced that it was expanding the Jabra Enhance hearing offering to include Lively, a leading direct-to-consumer (DTC) hearing aid provider. Lively, which was acquired by GN in 2021, has now rebranded to Jabra Enhance and launched a new website, JabraEnhance.com, as an "online destination for better hearing enabling consumers to explore, purchase and receive hearing care from hom...