Amyn M. Amlani, PhD, is President of Otolithic, LLC, a consulting firm that provides competitive market analysis and support strategy, economic and financial assessments, segment targeting strategies and tactics, professional development, and consumer insights. Dr. Amlani has been in hearing care for 25+ years, with extensive professional experience in the independent and medical audiology practice channels, as an academic and scholar, and in industry.
Featured image for “Auditory Training – A Familiar Value Proposition in an Era of Revolutionary Change”
Dec. 30, 2018

Auditory Training – A Familiar Value Proposition in an Era of Revolutionary Change

Amyn Amlani
The many blogs from 2018—submitted by area experts—provided glimpses of opportunities and challenges that precede the profession. An opportunity that is at the crossroads between provider service-provision and patient self-provision is auditory perceptual training. In March 2018, Harvey Abrams, PhD, made the point that the value proposition of auditory perceptual training has the potential (research is still needed in this area)
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Oct. 03, 2018

A Perfunctory Peep at the Economic Value of Direct-to-Consumer Hearing Devices

Amyn Amlani
by Vinaya Manchaiah, PhD, and Amyn M Amlani, PhD   Most professionals are aware that the FDA Reauthorization Act of 2017 has been passed into law and, as a provision of this bill, the FDA is in the process of developing a category of over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids for adults with mild-to-moderate hearing loss. Specifically, the FDA is charged with
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Jul. 02, 2018

A Comparative Analysis of Repaying the AuD Student Loan Debt

Amyn Amlani
By Amyn Amlani, PhD According to a recent Forbes report,1 US student loan debt is the second-ranked consumer commitment, trailing only mortgage debt. Several factors2 contribute to the rising costs associated with higher education, such as the cost of instruction (but not faculty salaries), operation and maintenance, student services, and research. For graduate students enrolled in a professional audiology program
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Jun. 05, 2018

As Our Profession Evolves, So Should Our KPI’s: Part 2

Amyn Amlani
Editor’s Note: Business decision-making requires analytics to steer decisions towards profitability. Over the years, the hearing healthcare market has utilized analytics called key performance indicators (KPIs) as their compass when making business decisions. Given the rapid changes occurring in the hearing healthcare arena, we are learning that some KPIs, which were once considered as barometers to financial gain, are not
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May. 29, 2018

US Ear Device Patents for April 2018

Amyn Amlani
By Holly Hosford-Dunn, PhD The Big 6 –soon to be the Big 5— continued patenting hearing aid designs and technologies in April. They were joined in these efforts by South Korean and Swiss companies with challenging names that are new to Hearing Economics. We ask better-informed readers to send us what you know about these two:  Sorynorydotcom Inc. Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur
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May. 01, 2018

US Hearing Device Patents for Q1 2018

Amyn Amlani
We’re likely to see more and more cross-overs between hearing aids and wearables/hearables. … What will the next generation of hearing aids look like?”  (Director of Media Relations at Sonova AG quoted in Hip hearing aids as a fashion statement?  Audiology Worldnews, April 20 2018)   By Holly Hosford-Dunn, PhD Marketing meets up with patents when it comes to figuring
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Apr. 23, 2018

As Our Profession Evolves, So Should Our KPI’s: Part 1

Amyn Amlani
Editor’s Note: Business decision-making requires analytics to steer decisions towards profitability. Over the years, the hearing healthcare market has utilized analytics called key performance indicators (KPIs) as their compass when making business decisions. Given the rapid changes occurring in the hearing healthcare arena, we are learning that some KPIs, which were once considered as barometers to financial gain, are not
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Apr. 16, 2018

US Hearing Device Patents for November-December 2017

Amyn Amlani
HHTM welcomes back Dr. Holly Hosford-Dunn to Hearing Economics this week to bring readers the latest update in her popular patent series that has been tracking patent activity in the hearing industry since 2012   The patent series took a 6 month vacation and resumes today with 73 patents which were awarded in the fourth quarter of 2017. Almost 75%
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Mar. 20, 2018

Auditory Training – A Familiar Value Proposition in an Era of Revolutionary Change

Amyn Amlani
By Harvey Abrams, PhD In a recent HHTM post, guest bloggers Terry Mactaggart and Errol Davis identify several provocative challenges that hearing healthcare providers will likely face in a near future characterized by rapid technological changes and major shifts in healthcare delivery. We would be wise to seriously consider how we will respond to each of those challenges. Mactaggart and
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Mar. 14, 2018

Beware: TPAs and HARNs Can be Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing

Amyn Amlani
Editor’s Note: Over the past few years, there has been a proliferation of third-party programs available to practitioners. These programs appear to provide practitioners with an opportunity to increase their patient load and, ultimately, their revenue stream. In this month’s blog, Dr. Kim Cavitt provides us with an overview of plans offered by third-party administrators (TPAs) and hearing aid referral