This Week in Hearing

In recent surveys, up to 60% of hearables users said they would find conversational enhancement desirable. Such large percentages mean people who do not measure as having hearing loss also wish to hear others better in noisy situations.

Meeting this need calls for AI-based speech enhancement, but until the present time it has not been possible to incorporate effective, low-latency algorithms directly into hearables. Then came twin announcements from Chatable and Knowles describing that such a system has been developed for Knowles' AISonic audio processor chip and incorporated into their new TWS developers platform.

In this segment, Dave Kemp discusses the implications of this development with Giles Tongue, CEO of Chatable, and Andy Bellavia, Director of Market Development for Knowles Corp. They describe how their companies' partnership revolutionizes transparency mode in hearables to enhance hearing for everyone, and how such a system could further improve understanding in noise when incorporated into hearing aids. They also share how other features of the TWS developers kit enable hearables designers to meet popular use cases such as premium sound, hands-free voice assistant access, and more. It all adds up to a future where hearables become an increasingly useful tool in daily life.

Guests: Kaila Howard, AuD & Riley DeBacker, AuD PhD

Host: Ashley Hughes, AuD 

In this week's segment of This Week in Hearing, host Ashley Hughes, AuD, chats with Kaila Howard, AuD, and Riley DeBacker, AuD, PhD – two recent Audiology graduates – about the importance of collaborative negotiations throughout one's career in hearing healthcare.  

Guests: Jim Kothe, Head of Sales for Whisper Hearing; Dan Quall, Director of Strategic Initiatives for Fuel Medical

Moderator: Dr. Bob Traynor, Consultant and Professor of Audiology

Dr. Bob Traynor interviews Jim Kothe, Head of Sales for Whisper Hearing and Dan Quall, Director of Strategic Initiatives for Fuel Medical, on the growing popularity of offering lease or subscription plans for patients to acquire hearing aids.  They discuss the benefits to the patients and the practices by offering these types of plans as an alternate to the traditional bundled model.

Guest: Alicia Spoor - Audiologist & Owner of Designer Audiology

Moderator: Amyn Amlani - Audiology Professor and Consultant at Otolithic Consulting

The Medicare Audiologist Access and Services Act (MAASA) is a bi-partisan-sponsored legislative bill—written and endorsed with a unified professional voice—that was introduced to the US House of Representatives on March 3, 2021, and to the US Senate on May 19, 2021. 

In the segment, This Week in Hearing, host Amyn Amlani, PhD, chats with Alicia Spoor, AuD, about (i) the current patient journey for those Medicare listeners who experience hearing loss, (ii) the tenets of this groundbreaking bill, and (iii) how MAASA would benefit patients and audiologists.  

There is also a discussion about the future role MAASA could play with predicted disruptions taking shape in the hear care space.  

Register for the ADA 2021 Virtual Fly-in--MAASA Senate Sign-on Challenge https://audiologist.org/item/register...

Guests: Brent Edwards, Director of the National Acoustics Lab; Andy Bellavia, Director of Business Development at Knowles Corp

Moderator: Dave Kemp, Director of Business Development at Oaktree Products

For the inaugural episode of This Week in Hearing, Dave Kemp interviews Brent Edwards, Ph.D, director of National Acoustic Labs, and Andy Bellavia, Director of Market Development for Knowles Corp. They discuss the blurring line between consumer audio and traditional hearing aids, and the potential impact on the hearing health industry.