This Week in Hearing

Even though OTC devices don’t exist yet as an FDA-regulated product category, direct-to-consumer hearing devices have existed for decades. In this week’s episode of This Week in Hearing Brian Taylor interviews Professor Sterling Sheffield of the University of Florida. Sterling has authored soon-to-be-published research comparing DTC devices to medical grade hearing aids. During the interview, Ster...

This week, host Bob Traynor sits down with Mike Halloran, the president of Beltone. As the nation’s leading hearing care retailer, Beltone has been paving the way in the hearing care industry for 82 years and has a network of 1,500 locations.   Being part of the Beltone network allows owners to remain independent while also being part of something bigger. Beltone welcomes and encourages heari...

This week, host Dave Kemp chats with Gael Hannan and Shari Eberts about living well with hearing loss. They discuss the motivation behind their new book, Hear & Beyond: Live Skillfully with Hearing loss, which they wrote as a how-to-guide for living successfully with hearing loss.    The pair believe it could not only benefit people in their hearing loss journey, but also add value t...

Computational audiology is defined as the augmentation of traditional hearing healthcare by digital methods, including artificial intelligence and machine learning.  This week, host Dave Kemp sits down with Jan-Willem Wasmann to talk about the potential of computational audiology to help more people in need of hearing healthcare service across the globe, and how it can help further improve th...

TympaHealth , a UK-based startup, is premised on enabling people to access ear and health services quickly and efficiently. Their innovative technology enables allied healthcare professionals with an all-in-one mobile technology, Tympa System, that delivers otoscopy, micro suction wax removal, and hearing screener services. These services are then available in care settings such as pharmacies, opt...

This week we tackle cell and gene therapy for hearing loss. To help us better understand the potential of allogeneic cell therapy we asked Brian Culley, CEO of Lineage Cell Therapeutics to describe how it works and how these types of pharmacologic treatments could stand side-by-side existing treatments such as hearing aids and cochlear implants. Be sure to subscribe to the  TWIH YouTube...

This week, celebrity influencer and hearing advocate, Heather Thomson sits down with Shari Eberts to address the challenges and blessings of navigating hearing loss in children and empowering her son to own his hearing health as he enters adulthood.  Heather recently partnered with ReSound to raise awareness of the hearing loss stigma surrounding young adults and adolescents. During her time...

If you are a member of the American Academy of Audiology, and you have yet to cast your vote for president-elect, this special episode of This Week in Hearing is well worth your time.    Both candidates, Bopanna Ballachandra and Rebekah Cunningham, sat down with TWIH to chat about their career paths and the vision they have for the profession.    Be sure to subscribe to our You...

From picking a restaurant on a Saturday night to choosing a new dentist, all of us seem to rely more and more on online reviews. In this episode of This Week in Hearing, Vinaya Manchaiah, professor at the University of Colorado Medical School talks us through the consumer on-line review research his team of collaborators have conducted over the past few years. Be sure to subscribe to the  TWI...

Kim Fishman is a long time practice owner in the suburban Twin Cities of Minneapolis-St. Paul. In this episode of This Week in Hearing, she shares her new business venture, which combines in-person care with an on-line store, as well as a co-op membership for consumers.  Kim also shares her passion for ethical practice and the importance of transparency. To learn more about her...

In January of 2022, Soundwave Hearing announced the launch of its new self-fitting Sontro AI hearing aids and mobile app.  In this week's episode, Soundwave CEO, Anthony Florek, and company CTO, Christopher Boven, sit down with host Bob Traynor to talk about the development of the company's technology and their plans to partner with the audiology community to offer Sontro AI devices as a 'sta...

As hearing aids and consumer audio devices converge, a wider range of people with hearing difficulties will have choices on the type of product they want to wear. At the heart of this convergence are transducers.    In this episode of This Week in Hearing, find out how Knowles Electronics, a household name in the hearing care business, has been leading innovation for more than 50 years....

Is it possible that the FDA's proposed rule on OTC hearing aids is obsolete, even before it becomes finalized? Andy Bellavia and Dave Kemp discuss how the long-awaited regulations from the FDA may already be obsolete, five years after being signed into law.   Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest episodes each week, and follow This Week in Hearing on LinkedIn and Twitter:...

This week, Dr. Kathy Dowd, Executive Director of The Audiology Project, joins host Amyn Amlani in discussing the connection between hearing loss and diabetes, as well as the role audiologists play in the management of patients with diabetes.   Until recently, the comorbidity of hearing loss, balance and diabetes was unknown to many agencies, such as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), but...

In today's episode, Dr. Richard Gans, the Executive Director and Founder of the American Institute of Balance, and Tom O'Neill, the President and CEO of Cognivue, join Dave Kemp to discuss the benefits of expanding the traditional service offerings found in most audiology clinics today. They discuss how expanding beyond traditional hearing services, audiologists can not only survive, but thrive an...

A group in the United Kingdom has re-innovated how to test hearing sensitivity using five bird calls in a forest soundscape. The bird calls are digitized and occupy similar frequencies to that of a traditional pure-tone test. The rationale behind this re-innovation was developed using design-thinking strategies based on a patient’s story of hearing loss.  In this episode of This Week in Heari...

Otolith Labs is pioneering the first medical wearable for the treatment of vertigo, a symptom experienced by more than 15 million Americans. Company CEO, Samuel Owen, and Chief Science Officer, Dr. Didier Depireux, join host Bob Traynor for a discussion of their promising new wearable technology under development for patients with vertigo.   The novel technology has been validated by several...

This week, host Dave Kemp is joined by Dr. Edmund Farrar and Anna Pugh of UK-based startup: Oto  Oto is an app-based digital health solution for people suffering from tinnitus. Over the past year, the company has witnessed significant growth and aims to expand access to more people with tinnitus through its platform "using accessible, science-backed and evidence-based digital tools".   I...

As the U.S. population becomes more diverse, it is imperative for hearing care professionals to provide patient centered care to everyone. Many clinicians around the country, however, lack the necessary tools to meet the needs of those from diverse cultural backgrounds.  Our topic today is why inclusiveness is so beneficial in today's world and how you can bring it to life in your practice. A...

This week, host Dave Kemp is joined by Nick Morgan-Jones and Gray Dawdy of Decibels.   Nick has needed hearing aids since the age of 10, but was turned off by the stigma associated with traditional hearing aids.     In 2021, Nick started Decibels (originally Butterfly Audio) and video blogged his journey along the way. Working with his friend and designer, Gray Dawdy, the...

This week, host Dave Kemp is joined by Jodi Sasaki-Miraglia, AuD, Director of Education & Training-West Region for Widex USA.    The pair discuss the benefits of adding tinnitus evaluation and management into a clinical practice, as well as background on the solutions currently offered by Widex, a major hearing aid manufacturer that has offered tinnitus solutions in its products for...

Young children are prone to middle ear infections. New technology is empowering front-line professionals to increase their sensitivity in identifying fluid in the middle ear. Photonicare has developed a novel, non-invasive, low-cost imaging instrument called the OtoSight Middle Ear Scope.    In this episode of This Week in Hearing, Jeff Hydar, Chief Commercial Officer at Photonicare, and...

Who would have ever thought the human brain would be compared to Mr Potato Head? With its phenomenal capacity to change and re-wire itself at any age, our guest this week, the incomparable neuroscientist,David Eagleman, does just that. In this episode, Eagleman sits down with Brian Taylor to talk about sensory substitution, sensory enhancement and Eagleman's company, Neosensory, which leverag...

The manner in which hearing care is delivered is changing. At the forefront of this change is Tuned, an online virtual platform that empowers both the provider and the patient to strive towards improved hearing health.    In this week’s episode, host Amyn Amlani chats with Tuned’s Danny Aronson, Co-Founder and CEO, and Heather Malyuk, Head of Audiology, about the free virtual clinic, the...

The ability of human cochlear hair cells to regenerate has been nothing more than a pipe dream – until recently. Frequency Therapeutics, a publicly traded (NASDAQ) company based in Lexington, Massachusetts, has published a series of clinical trials showing early promise that a pharmacologic agent, FX-322, regenerates human hair cells in the cochlea.    During this interview with Brian Ta...