Future Ear Radio

Guests: Annie Duchen, Au.D - Head of OTC Hearing Aid Sales & Customer Service at Sony. Amanda Fadden, Au.D. - OTC Product & Commercial Lead at Sony.

Dave is joined by Annie and Amanda to discuss the current state of the OTC hearing aid market, including the Sony offering and how clinicians are implementing these devices into their portfolio.

On this special episode of the podcast, Dave moderates a panel discussion from the Future of Hearing Healthcare Conference 2025 discussing a variety of bills that are being proposed or have recently passed to increase the scope of Audiology within each panelists' state.

The panel members are:

- Dr. Alicia Spoor (Maryland)

- Dr. Kelley Linton (Arkansas)

- Dr. Bryan Greenaway (Oregon)

- Stephanie Czuhajewski - Executive Director of the Academy of Doctors of Audiology (ADA)

Guests: Robert Sweetow, Ph.D. - Co-Inventor/Scientific Advisor and Miles Aron, Ph.D. - Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder

Dave is joined on the podcast this week by Robert & Aaron to discuss their company, Neurotone AI, and their flagship Auditory Training platform, LACE AI Pro.

Guests: Brent Jones, CEO & Robert Allen Au.D, Clinical Director of Topple Diagnostics

Dave kicks off the 2025 podcasting season by bringing on Brent and Robert to discuss their business, Topple Diagnostics. The conversation encompasses how the business was conceived and built, significant milestones as the business scaled, how they've found product-market-fit, and how they're trying to make vestibular diagnostics more accessible for patients and more affordable for clinics to provide.

Guest: Oli Luke - Co-Founder & Chief Marketing Officer for Orange & Gray

Oli joins Dave on the podcast this week to share his perspective on how to navigate and capitalize on the rapidly changing marketing environment within the hearing healthcare market.

Guests: Ross O'Neill Ph.D (Founding CEO) & Hubert Lim Ph.D (Chief Scientific Officer) of Neuromod

Dave is joined by Ross & Hubert to discuss:

- The backstory of how Ross & Hubert met and ultimately partnered together on Lenire

- Hubert's research and papers he wrote about paired stimulation & Pavlovian conditioning, which included data that identified tongue stimulation combined with sound as a promising direction to pursue

- An overview of what exactly tinnitus is and why Lenire presents such a novel approach to treating tinnitus

- Other types of synchronous-stimuli approaches that have emerged in other healthcare verticals (i.e. mirror therapy for phantom limb pain)

- The challenging process of gaining FDA approval and the clinical trials that were conducted throughout the process

- Being featured as the cover story on Nature Communications

- The initial roll-out of Lenire, the current state of the provider network, and the real-world data that's being collected and published

Guest: Patrick Lawler - Director of Sales at Cognivue

Patrick joins Dave on the podcast this week to share a personal testimonial about the need for better cognitive screenings in healthcare.

Guests: Jen La Borde BC-HIS & Chelsea Walters BC-HIS - Owners of Family Hearing

Jen and Chelsea sit down with Dave this week on the podcast to discuss:

- Their professional journeys, how they both ended up at Family Hearing, and then eventually partnering together to own and operate the clinic

- The process of evaluating the prospect of purchasing and owning a clinic

- Partnership - determining who does what, leveraging each other's strengths, and how to maintain a strong partnership when things go sideways with the business

- Transitioning from the original owners to Chelsea and Jen and choosing which aspects of the clinic to preserve and which to overhaul

- Staffing, cultivating talent and creating paths of upward mobility for employees

Guest: Kelsi Mangrem, Au.D. - Owner of Holland Hearing Center

Kelsi joins Dave on the podcast this week to discuss:

- Her backstory, route into Audiology, and how she ultimately decided to purchase a private practice to own & operate

- Reminiscing on the first year of owning Holland Hearing Center - failing, learning and growing

- Methods for growing her network of fellow entrepreneurs and business owners and the benefits of cultivating that type of professional network

- The realities of owning and operating a private practice in 2024 - threats and opportunities

- Making the decision to remove third party administrator (TPA) plans from her offering

- How to differentiate a private practice in 2024

- Leaning into effective, modern digital marketing strategies

Guest: Reuben Zielinski - Co-Founder and Owner of Redux

Reuben joins Dave on the podcast this week for an in-person episode to discuss Reuben's professional journey that ultimately led him to designing and developing the Redux Drying System.