Hearing Economics

The patent world continues to turn, pandemic notwithstanding.  You won’t find patent #10607258 listed in this month’s table. However, you just find its handiwork up in the sky, if airlines start flying again. For those on the ground, looking up or out their windows, IBM has a plan to capture our skyward-directed attention and perhaps our privacy:  System, method, and

by Jill Preminger, PhD I became aware of the importance of trust in audiology care while participating in an international research study in which we interviewed people and discussed their experience with and perceptions of hearing healthcare.  All participants had some degree of hearing loss and varying degrees of experience with hearing healthcare; for example, some had never had a

Thanks, Pearl Jam Even from casual observation of our hearing behavior most of us connect the presence of two ears with our ability to locate sounds. (Schubert, 1980)1 We take our  two-ear arrangement for granted, which is probably why the “binaural” moniker rarely populated the titles of scientific studies until recent times.2 There were early pioneers:  a binaural stethoscope was

by Amyn M Amlani, PhD COVID-19, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (Sars-CoV-2), is a previously unknown virus that captured the attention of the world in December 2019. Initial reports of this virus surfaced when a large number of pneumonia cases surfaced from a seafood market in Wuhan, a city in Eastern China, where the COVID-19 was transmitted from

Route 66    Standard hearing aid treatment protocol follows a fitting and follow-up route of periodic in-office visit to adjust and tune instruments. In early stages, this usually means gradual optimization as patients accommodate to amplification. In subsequent years, it also means monitoring and adjusting for further decreases in patients’ hearing sensitivity and speech recognition.  The price of hearing aids

Growth and Prosperity   Having proudly served their community for decades, Hometown Audiology helped thousands of patients, often multi-generation families, to improve their hearing ability. As well-respected clinicians, Dr. Kim Miller’s team empowered those entrusted in their care to hear and understand better, at home, work and play, every day. From fellow healthcare providers to teachers, from first responders to

by Amyn M Amlani, PhD Today’s blog, Part 3, is the last in the series, “Pricing in Hearing Healthcare: Which Race are You Running?” Thus far, we have covered the: Developing market segmentation occurring in hearing healthcare (Part 1), and the Negative effect (i.e., cannibalization) of reduced retail pricing on total revenue, consumer purchase intent, and market brand within the

Tis the season   Baby it’s cold out there, especially for the ears. Hence, the recurring, much-appreciated winter theme when inventors think up new ear warmers (D871677) and ear covering systems (10500098). The latter patent addresses an emerging technology-wrought crisis of sorts — how to keep ears warm while streaming music through earbuds.  The inventor’s solution is a set of

Dear Readers: During this holiday season, the editors at Hearing Health & Technology Matters (HHTM) are taking some time off. However, we are not leaving you without anything to read on our blog this week. Instead, we are publishing a special holiday edition filled with what we call our Readers’ Choices. Our Readers’ Choices featured this week are the posts

Home Alone with Your Ear Devices Zipline Health’s patent #10463241 laments time lost and illness exacerbated by the inconvenient fact that “diagnosing external and middle ear infections requires a live in-person physician appointment and consultation.” The ear’s unclaimed territory beckons as a solution (image above). Zipline envisions  fully-loaded earpieces–light source, magnification lens, air conduction channel, miniature camera–coupled to an air