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 typically includes audiology services bundled in. Hence, hearing aid prices are high but include an incentive for patients to return for needed, pre-paid services.
None of the above is news to hearing healthcare professionals. It’s the way we earn our living wage, which lends inertia to efforts to improve the method through automation of some or all service component of hearing aid fittings. Our pricing and visit protocols haven’t changed substantially in decades. We’re a bit like comfortable, familiar stops along the old Route 66 of hearing healthcare.
The Automated Highway
OTCs, PSAPs DTC and SFHAs have entered the hearing aid mix, though not through the front doors of audiology dispensing practices. They are bringing technological advances which continue to explore means of streamlining or even eliminating mileposts along the fitting and follow-up route, carving out exits from Route 66 to a new streamline freeway of hearing care access.
A case in point is IBM’s patent #10540994, Personal device for hearing degradation monitoring. Here’s the reasoning, paraphrased from the patent:
“Because hearing loss is highly personal, traditional hearing aid devices can require special adjustment from time to time… tuning the hearing aid can be time consuming and expensive, and proper adjustment may be difficult. Additionally, people who have hearing loss may not know how severe their loss is, or how it progresses over time. Thus, a user of the hearing aid may not know that the tuning should be performed.”
IBM’s patent lets hearing aid wearers know when tuning is needed and, from the sounds of it, may make the “difficult, proper adjustment” as needed as well. This is one example of various patent efforts by various firms of all sizes to take SFHAs to the next milepost and beyond, following a consumer highway that largely bypasses traditional audiology’s Route 66 approach.
The January 2020 List
|
Description |
Patent Number |
Assignee |
Issued |
|
Ear canal irrigation system and method |
Applicant: Ackerman, Christopher (Keyport, NJ) |
1/07/2020 |
|
|
Atraumatic vestibular stimulation and measuring electrode |
MED-EL Elektromedizinische Geraete GmbH (Innsbruck, AT) |
1/07/2020 |
|
|
Impulse noise management |
Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
1/07/2020 |
|
|
Charging-induced implant operation |
Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
1/07/2020 |
|
|
Hearing impaired driver detection and assistance system |
GM Global Technology Operations LLC (Detroit, MI) |
1/07/2020 |
|
|
Multi-loop implant charger |
Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
1/07/2020 |
|
|
Reconfigurable switched capacitor DC-DC converter for head-wearable hearing devices |
GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK) |
1/07/2020 |
|
|
Apparatus, system, and method for tragus conduction hearable device |
Facebook Technologies LLC (Menlo Park, CA) |
1/07/2020 |
|
|
Headphone system with detachable earbud speakers |
Remarkable Technologies Inc (Avon, CT) |
1/07/2020 |
|
|
Ear cup with attachment unit |
Sennheiser Communications A/S (Ballerup, DK) |
1/07/2020 |
|
|
System and method for optimizing battery usage for a binaural hearing system |
Sonova AG (Staefa, CH) |
1/07/2020 |
|
|
Sliding bias and peak limiting for optical hearing devices |
Earlens Corporation (Menlo Park, CA) |
1/07/2020 |
|
|
Speech processor headpiece |
Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH) |
1/07/2020 |
|
|
Customization of bone conduction hearing devices |
Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
1/07/2020 |
|
|
Residual syncing of sound with light to produce a starter sound at live and latent events |
International Business Machines Corporation (Armonk, NY) |
1/07/2020 |
|
|
Binaural synthesis |
Facebook Inc (Menlo Park, CA) |
1/07/2020 |
|
|
Hearing aid |
Xiamen Retone Hearing Technology Co Ltd (Fujian, CN) |
1/07/2020 |
|
|
Ear cleaner |
Quest Products LLC (Pleasant Prairie, WI) |
1/14/2020 |
|
|
Method for apparatus for sample rate conversion with unknown input and output clocks |
Sonova AG (Staefa, CH) |
1/14/2020 |
|
|
Voice activity detection using air conduction and bone conduction microphones |
Amazon Technologies Inc (Seattle, WA) |
1/14/2020 |
|
|
Integrating wax guards into earphone ear tips |
Bose Corporation (Framingham, MA) |
1/14/2020 |
|
|
Auditory signal processor using spiking neural network and stimulus reconstruction with top-down attention control |
Trustees of Boston University (Boston, MA) |
1/14/2020 |
|
|
External ear insert for hearing enhancement |
Applicant: Kah, Jr, Carl L.C. (North Palm Beach, FL) |
1/14/2020 |
|
|
Technique for directing audio in augmented reality system |
Magic Leap Inc (Plantation, FL) |
1/14/2020 |
|
|
Hearing device with an earpiece and method for controlling a hearing device |
Sivantos PTE Ltd (Singapore, SG) |
1/14/2020 |
|
|
Hearing device and method with intelligent steering |
GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK) |
1/14/2020 |
|
|
Configuration of feedback cancelation for hearing aids |
Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie MN) |
1/14/2020 |
|
|
Hearing aid, in particular behind-the-ear hearing assistance aid |
Sivantos PTE Ltd (Singapore, SG) |
1/14/2020 |
|
|
Automated assessment and adjustment of tinnitus-masker impact on speech intelligibility during use |
Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie MN) |
1/21/2020 |
|
|
Cochlear implant electrode assembly insertion tool |
Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
1/21/2020 |
|
|
Electrode selection |
Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
1/21/2020 |
|
|
Implant infection control |
Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
1/21/2020 |
|
|
Wearable sound system with configurable privacy modes |
Harman International Industries Inc (Stamford, CT) |
1/21/2020 |
|
|
Somatic, auditory and cochlear communication system and method |
Somatek (San Diego, CA) |
1/21/2020 |
|
|
Personal device for hearing degradation monitoring |
International Business Machines Corporation (Armonk, NY) |
1/21/2020 |
|
|
Flanged earbud and hearing device including same |
Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie MN) |
1/21/2020 |
|
|
Observer-based cancellation system for implantable hearing instruments |
Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
1/21/2020 |
|
|
Coupling apparatuses for transcutaneous bone conduction devices |
Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
1/21/2020 |
|
|
Hearing aid device unit along a single curved axis |
Oticon Medical A/S (Smorum, DK) |
1/21/2020 |
|
|
Hearing aid with assisted noise suppression |
Widex A/S (Lynge, DK) |
1/21/2020 |
|
|
Hearing device with suppression of comb filtering effect |
GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK) |
1/21/2020 |
|
|
Hearing and system |
Oticon A/S (Smorum, DK) |
1/21/2020 |
|
|
Multiple arm dipole antenna for hearing instrument |
GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK) |
1/21/2020 |
|
|
Earpiece with canal microphone, ambient microphone and receiver |
GN Hearing A/S (Ballerup, DK) |
1/21/2020 |
|
|
Hearing device |
Sivantos PTE Ltd (Singapore, SG) |
1/21/2020 |
|
|
Cartridge for an electrode array insertion device |
Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
1/28/2020 |
|
|
Antennas for use with transcutaneously powered medical implants |
Advanced Bionics AG (Staefa, CH) |
1/28/2020 |
|
|
Systems and methods for alerting auditory prosthesis recipient |
Cochlear Limited (Macquarie University, NSW, AU) |
1/28/2020 |
|
|
External ear insert for hearing comprehension enhancement |
Applicant: Kah, Jr, Carl L.C. (North Palm Beach, FL) |
1/28/2020 |
|
|
Method of operating a hearing aid, and hearing aid |
Sivantos PTE Ltd (Singapore, SG) |
1/28/2020 |
|
|
Hearing aid antenna for high-frequency data communication |
Starkey Laboratories Inc (Eden Prairie MN) |
1/28/2020 |
|
|
Methods and systems for designing and applying numerically optimized binaural room impulse responses |
Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corporation (San Francisco, CA |
1/28/2020 |
|
|
Hearing assistance device |
Nuance Hearing Ltd (Tel Aviv, IL) |
1/28/2020 |
|
|
Hearing protector |
3M Innovative Properties Company (St. Paul, MN) |
1/28/2020 |
Holly Hosford-Dunn, PhD, owned and operated a dispensing audiology practice in Tucson and was active in management of HearingHealthMatters.org through 2017. She holds BA degrees in Communication Sciences, Psychology and Economics; MA in Communication Disorders; PhD in Hearing Sciences. Following post-doctoral work at Max Planck Institute (Munich, DE) and Eaton-Peabody Auditory Physiology Lab (Boston), she joined the Stanford medical school faculty as director of audiology. She has authored/edited numerous text books, chapters, journals, and articles and taught Marketing and Practice Management in a variety of academic settings. She continues to consult and write on topics related to hearing health care vis-à-vis consumer demands, professional training, technological advancement, capital investment, industry consolidation, regulatory control, product and service distribution, and strategic pricing
*feature image courtesy of experiencewillaims.com
