This Week in Hearing

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Is it possible that the FDA's proposed rule on OTC hearing aids is obsolete, even before it becomes finalized?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...

This Week in Hearing co-host, Bob Traynor, is joined by special guest, Dr. Gus Mueller, to celebrate 50 years since his first hearing aid fitting as an audiologist in the US Army stationed at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C.   The pair reflect on how the methods and techniques used to fit hearing aids 50 years ago have changed and evolved over the decades.    Dr. Mueller als...

This week, host Dave Kemp is joined by Giles Tongue, CEO of Chatable, and Karl Strom, Editor-In-Chief of the Hearing Review, to discuss their recent experience at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.   They discuss the implications of the latest technology trends and some of the key takeaways for the hearing health and audio industries.

Nearly four out of 10 people Americans will suffer from vertigo at some point in their lives. The sensation that vertigo causes – that you or your environment are moving or spinning can be debilitating and disrupt everyday life – causing people to suffer from dangerous falls, hearing loss, excruciating migraines, and miss work and personal activities.      In a breakthrough stu...

Recent research conducted by this week’s guest, Diana Emanuel, PhD of Towson University, suggests that an astounding 60% of audiologists find their way into the profession via the “undergraduate-stumble pathway.” That is, they find audiology through a circuitous route during their first few years of college, typically changing from speech pathology to audiology.    Professor Emanuel disc...

In the first episode of 2022, Dave Kemp is joined by Kat Penno, Director of Hearing Health at Nuheara, and Andy Bellavia, Director of Market Development for Knowles Corp. They discuss the increasing sophistication of patient expectations and education, hearing device technology innovations currently underway and the evolution of hearing care service delivery models. Be sure to subscribe to our You...

Signia, and its predecessor Siemens, has an impressive legacy of innovation geared toward enhancing the real-world performance of individuals with hearing loss. In this episode of This Week in Hearing, Bob and Brian recap many of the key milestones in the history of hearing aid technology over the past 75 years. Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for the latest episodes each week, and fol...

Last week, GN Hearing announced the acquisition of New York based Lively – a leading online direct-to-consumer hearing care retailer for approximately $95 million dollars.   GN Hearing CEO, Gitte Aabo, returns to This Week in Hearing to discuss the motivation behind the acquisition with Dr. Bob Traynor. The pair discuss how the move strengthens GN's position to better meet the needs of consum...

Hearing aids have never been so sophisticated, yet uptake and consistent daily use often lag behind technological innovation.   In this episode of This Week in Hearing, Bec Bennett, PhD, researcher at the Ear Science Institute in Perth Australia sits down with Brian Taylor to discuss her research on under-reported hearing aid problems and how they can be handled by clinicians.  &nbs...

In this week’s technology spotlight, Dr. Bob Traynor speaks with Robert Koch, the President and Founder of hearing healthcare startup, AHead Simulations. Koch's company has developed and commercialized CARL, a simulator used widely in audiology training programs across the US and Canada.  The pair discuss how simulators, like CARL, can help enhance and improve the clinical training process an...

Age-related hearing loss is a common problem in adults, and it might be starting earlier than we think. Courtney Coburn Glavin, a PhD candidate, at Northwestern University sits down with Dr. Brian Taylor to review her research using DPOAEs to identify hearing loss of early onset in young adults and the clinical implications of her work.    They also discuss the limitations of the pure to...

This Week in Hearing co-hosts, Dave Kemp, Bob Traynor, Amyn Amlani, and Brian Taylor, reflect on insights they've gained and key takeaways they've learned from more than 25 interviews with industry experts.    The lively discussion centers around the evolving landscape of hearing health - from hearing care delivery, to regulations, changing technology and the convergence with consumer au...