Hearing Economics

Hearing aid manufacturers are pursuing market power with a vengeance, if you credit the comment in last week’s post that “Patents and patent protection… extend a firm’s market power.” Siemens wins for Most Patents Issued, a good place to be if they’re once again putting themselves up for top-dollar sale. Panasonic and Phonak tie for Title Brevity (“Hearing Aid“).  Sonic Innovation

The average Price of hearing aids began rising faster than inflation in 1994 when the first truly differentiated product entered the market.  In contrast, Price  kept pace with inflation for traditional instruments, which tumbled into a new niche of “low end” products (see title figure). What does this mean? More Economic Stuff (what you’ve been craving)   Traditional hearing aids

Hearing Aid Price is still in the closet, but it’s being outed by professional and public outcry by squeezed Audiologists and consumers.{{1}}[[1]]I don’t know if hearing aid dispensers are feeling squeezed too, but probably.[[1]] If those two groups are outside picketing, who’s in the closet?  Current conventional wisdom points to Machiavellian Manufacturing Monopolists.  Before we jump on that bandwagon, let’s

“The hearing aid industry uses every new thing, like digital or a new algorithm, to raise prices.”  CEO of a manufacturer of low-cost, app-smart hearing aids. Really?  Is the hearing aid industry conniving and villainous to consumers?  Do hearing aids really cost $6000/pair? If so, why has that rule of thumb stayed constant for a decade?  Shouldn’t those $6K hearing

Hearing Economics has clawed its way to the 100-post peak today, a dubious achievement signifying either celebration or an urgent need to jump off and get a life.  A third option is to figure out the meaning of life by writing yet another post.  The following are weird, funny, disconcerting, or just plain embarrassing items that have been tucked away

Today wraps up a 3-part series on flu vaccination by looking at  private versus public sector efforts to vaccinate and protect, being mindful that we need to protect not only ourselves and our patients, but our professional livelihoods as well.  It’s a perfect blend of Economics and Ethics and, I’d like to point out, Marketing.  If it were me,  I’d put a big

Last week’s post ended in high dudgeon at the prospect of hearing professionals violating the Harm Principle by foregoing flu shots.  In the meantime, the flu marches on:  For the second week in a row,  flu deaths exceeded the epidemic threshold; 49.6% of hospital flu admissions were in those 65 and over, 48 states reported the highest category of flu activity

Anyone who picked up a newspaper or turned on the news on January 10th knows that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is tracking an “overwhelming” influenza outbreak across the US that is thought to grow more vicious before it abates.{{1}}[[1]]At the same time, the CDC has reported the largest outbreak of pertussis in the US in 60 years

As promised, here’s an update of interesting hearing technology patents — the list is long but it only encompasses the last two months of 2012.  I think you’ll agree, it looks like a Christmas wish list — hearing aids that tell you how your body’s doing, that find themselves, that test your hearing, that do real-ear; nanotechnology penetrating the tympanic

Last year’s top Hearing Economics post  listed some US patents granted in the hearing industry. The list may have stimulated readership, so another cherry-picked list of recent patents will show up in next week’s post and will be updated every few months.  In the meantime, today’s post looks at the exciting afterlife of patents in biotechnology.  Patent Wars   Not