Future Ear Radio

Guests: Dr. Kim Cavitt, Owner of Audiology Resources; Geoff Cooling, Co-Founder and Editor of Hearing Aid Know

Topic: How Hearing Professionals Can Thrive in an Expanding Hearing Health Market

Kim and Geoff join Dave on the podcast this week to continue the discussions had on the podcast recently about the accelerating pace of change occurring in the hearing health market. The three discuss all the recent announcements (Bose's hearing aid, Jabra's hearing aid, Sonova + Sennheiser, Jacoti + Qualcomm, & Apple's "Conversation Boost") and discuss how hearing professionals can insert themselves properly into the burgeoning mild-moderate side of the market. 

As Kim describes, the key might ultimately revolve around the idea of serving as a "navigator" on the patients' hearing aid journey, which might ultimately not include device sales, but rather compensation through services. Therefore, the three discuss how professionals will need to alter their revenue models and service delivery models in order to participate in this portion of the market.

Guest: Carolina Milanesi - President & Principal Analyst at Creative Strategies; Founder of Heart of Tech

Topic: Google + Samsung + Fitbit = A True Apple Watch Competitor?

Carolina joins Dave this week on the podcast to discuss the news coming out of Google's I/O developer conference that Samsung and Google will be merging their smartwatch platforms (Samsung's Tizen and Google's Wear OS) into a unified smartwatch platform, Wear. As the two discuss, when you factor in Google's acquisition of Fitbit in January of 2021, what we're really seeing now is essentially Google, Samsung and Fitbit banding together and pooling their resources to combat Apple's dominance of the smartwatch sector.

Google provides it's operating system, first party applications (i.e. Maps & YouTube Music), and Google Assistant, while Samsung provides its core competence - excellent hardware manufacturing and device proliferation, and Fitbit brings the unique use cases built around Fitness and health.

As Carolina describes, this trio of companies unified together in a cohesive offering might finally offer a truly compelling Android smartwatch option that has the potential to scale and compete head-to-head with the Apple Watch. As the two discuss, the Android ecosystem desperately needs adequate peripheral devices to complement the android handsets, as Apple's ecosystem continues to deepen its moat and switching costs via its wearables and services.

Finally, the two talk through the broader implications of these moves, especially as it relates to the future of all wearable devices, including hearables and AR glasses, and the unique preventative health use cases that wearables continue to migrate toward.

Transcript: here

Guests: Abram Bailey, AuD - CEO of Hearing Tracker; Steve Taddei, AuD - Professor at Rock Valley College, Audiologist at Center for Sight & Hearing, and Host of the Hearing Tracker Podcast

Topic: The Hearing Health Market Heats Up: Sonova + Sennheiser & Bose Hearing Aids

Abram and Steve make their debut on the podcast to help break down the recent news of Sonova buying Sennheiser's consumer audio division and Bose introducing its self-fit hearing aids to the market. The three talk through the big picture of what's currently underway in the hearing health industry, what to expect in the short-term, and how hearing professionals can insert themselves into the burgeoning world of mild-moderate solutions in a meaningful and practical way. 

In addition, Abram and Steve share the backstory of The Hearing Tracker Podcast and why they decided to pivot the show to a more, NPR-style themed format, and talk about the growing ecosystem of creators in this industry. 

Guests: Natalie Nelson, AuD - Clinical Trainer at Phonak; Ashley Hughes, AuD - Audiologist at Interacoustics 

Topic: Navigating Student Loans & Negotiating Effectively: A Guide for Young Hearing Pros

Natalie and Ashley join Dave on the podcast to share their hard-earned wisdom around navigating student debt and utilizing collaborative negotiation in the work-world. For students and young hearing professionals entering into the first or second industry job, these two help to illustrate real tactics one can use to efficiently pay down student debt. Many of the tactics mentioned through the convo revolve around learning how to properly negotiate at the onset of one's career. 

As the three discuss, the idea of collaborative negotiation is that you're working to find a win-win between you and your employer. Therefore, it's important that in order to justify asking for additional benefits or higher salary, but also provide meaningful ways to compensate for your ask. Natalie and Ashley share a wide variety of options that one might offer (such as social media management or handling walk-ins), as well as ways to practice the one's negotiating skills in everyday life so that it may come a bit more naturally in time. 

Guest: Collin Borns, Head of Business Development (US) at Speechly

Topic: Speechly: Enabling Voice User Interfaces Everywhere

This week on the podcast, Dave is joined by his old friend Collin Borns to discuss his new venture as Head of Business Development at Speechly. The two chat about the unique capabilities of Speechly, honing in on its ability to process natural language and speech recognition simultaneously, which can dramatically enhance mobile and web experiences, such as eCommerce shopping. The two talk about the current state of voice tech and how mass-enabling sophisticated voice user interfaces as a layer on websites and mobile apps might help to further accelerate the overall adoption of voice assistants.

Transcript: here

Guests: Kat Penno - Audiologist & Founder of the Hearing Collective; Andy Bellavia, Director of Market Development at Knowles Corp

Topic: The Hearing Collective & Pushing the Boundaries of Hearing Health

Kat and Andy return to the podcast this week to continue their discussion from 6 months ago during episode 48. This time, the three discuss Blamey & Saunders, an Australian based company that pioneered a variety of remote services and online offerings, which segues into Kat sharing more about her business, The Hearing Collective, which was largely inspired by Blamey & Saunders. 

Much of the conversation revolves around the notion of constantly pushing the boundaries in hearing health and honing in on various ways to do so. The group speaks about utilizing new software and providing patients with the latest and greatest ancillary solutions to enhance the overall value proposition and increase the patient's satisfaction.

Guests: Nancy Tye-Murray, PhD - Founder & CEO of Amptify; Chris Cardinal - President & COO of Amptify; Amyn Amlani, PhD - Owner of Otolithic Consulting; Bob Traynor, AuD - Longtime Audiologist & Private Practice Owner at Audiology Associates

Topic: Future of Hearing Health Panel Discussion - Business Model Innovation

This week's episode features the second panel discussion that Dave moderated at the Future of Hearing Health virtual conference in March. During this panel discussion, the four panelists + Dave as the moderator, discuss the evolving business models in the hearing health industry and the future economics pertaining to the hearing healthcare provider. 

Topics discussed throughout this conversation include: new technologies and ancillary offerings to include in one's scope of service, new methods of testing and gathering patient data, the role of remote services and different ways to bill for them, re-examining the AuD program and the student debt dilemma, the growing demand for assistants and technicians, business acumen for HCPs, how professional service might be layered onto the OTC offering, and enhanced training programs for specialty offerings. 

Episode Transcript: here

Guests: Annette Mazevski, PhD - Manager of Technology Assessment at Oticon; Kevin Setiz-Paquette, AuD - Director of Phonak Audiology Research Center; Brent Edwards, PhD - Director at National Acoustic Labs; Ryan Kraudel - VP Marketing at Valencell

Topic: Future of Hearing Health Panel Discussion - Hearing Device Innovation

This week features a panel discussion that was recorded in March 2021 for the Future of Hearing Health Virtual Conference. During this panel discussion, the four panelists + Dave as the moderator, discuss the current state of hearing device innovation, and look toward what's on the horizon for hearables and hearing aids. 

Topics discussed throughout this conversation include: artificial intelligence-based hearing solutions, biometric sensor integration and sensor fusion, the role and impact of the Big Tech (Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc) on hearing health, Bluetooth connectivity and proliferation, interconnected healthcare solutions, the rising status of hearing care providers in the broader healthcare ecosystem, and the trajectory of online and remote services.

Episode Transcript

Guest: Lena Kyman, AuD, Clinical Trainer at Phonak

Topic: Life as a Clinical Trainer

Lena joins Dave on the podcast this week to share her journey of becoming an audiologist, working inside a private practice for six years, and now working as a clinical trainer who spends her time training fellow audiologists on Phonak's technology. 

Lena provides a unique perspective derived from her time working in private practice and now within one of the major hearing aid manufacturers. She shares some of the most frequently discussed questions and issues that are had by many audiologists, many of which pertain to Bluetooth connectivity. The two discuss why Bluetooth is a double-edged sword, proving difficult and frustrating in some instances, but a true enabler for a better patient experience and point out that it's part of the patient expectation here in 2021. 

The conversation spans many different aspects of the valuable role that clinical trainers play in the field of hearing health. 

Episode Transcript

Guests: Giles Tongue, CEO at Chatable Apps; Andy Bellavia, Director of Market Development at Knowles Corp

Topic: The Quest for Near-Zero Latency in Hearables

Giles and Andy join Dave this week on the podcast to discuss one of the opportunities that AI-based hearing solutions present, solving speech-in-noise, as well as the biggest challenge that these solutions face, which is latency. 

For a long time, solving speech-in-noise has been at the top of the list of many hearing professionals' wish lists, and finally, we might be at the onset of a new wave of solutions that can harness the power of artificial intelligence to help solve this issue. These solutions however, rely on complex calculations and processing power, which can cause latency, or a time-delay while the sound is being processed. 

The three talk through some of the ways and techniques that latency can be reduced to the point where it's indistinguishable by the wearer, and how these kind of solutions might ultimately manifest in the market.  

Episode Transcript