Hearing Economics

The last monologue post, back in October, presented Plan B — palliative pricing in an unbundled traditional dispensing model–as a spring board for treatment, if not cure, of audiology’s “cost disease.” The disease metaphor was coined by famous economist William Baumol to frame the price problem faced by industries/professions where cost of technology decreases over time, thanks to innovation, but

Once again, communications giants weigh in on the November patent list, which features wearable audio devices from Google and Samsung (0129635 and 10123137) and audio processing for people with hearing loss by Dolby Labs (#10136240).    Ears, Fingers, Eyes and Toes   Time was, grownups maneuvered through life with ears, eyes, hands and feet. Hands and feet got us where we

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)

by Harvey Abrams, PhD As if the Costco effect and OTC legislation weren’t causing the audiology community enough tsuris, along comes another threat that’s sure to keep us up at night – deregulating the practice of audiology. In the past 18 months, representatives in 2 states, Iowa and Texas, introduced legislation that would eliminate the requirement to obtain a license

As long as people have been wearing hearing aids, and as long as audiologists have been fitting and tailoring them to individual users, there has always been one intractable problem. That is that hearing aids are standalone devices with (relatively) high IQs and (lamentably) low EQs.   What is the Intelligence of Smart Hearing Devices?   Hearing aids work great

The Internet of Things and Us   Apple’s image of the IoT (feature image, from USPTA #10067734) is a pyramid with AirPods on top. In this patent, Hearables alert the IoT universe when they’re in the ears, ready to receive and send with phone, watch, computer, etc; likewise, the alert when they leave the ears. Hearables are top of the

By Barry Freeman, PhD, and Ian Windmill, PhD The past few decades have been dominated by efforts to control healthcare costs while improving affordability and access to quality care. Hearing care is no exception as demonstrated by the reports of the 2016 NASEM Committee on Accessible and Affordable Hearing Health Care for Adults and the 2016 Report from the President’s

Baumol described a chronic economic disease of healthcare and other direct services due to service wages that must rise on the back of stalled productivity while manufacturing labor costs rise naturally on the back of increasing productivity. The result is increasingly expensive (some would say inefficient) services to administer increasingly efficient devices. For dispensing audiologists, Baumol’s cost disease puts us loggerheads

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

Sometimes it’s the little things in life that require attention, such as how to keep track of your sunglasses and Hearables (c.f. USPTO #10052235: Lanyard with integrated ear plugs and retractable sheath).   Sometimes it’s the little ones in life that deserve attention. “Headset enabling extraordinary hearing” (USPTO #10051372 ) by Bose doesn’t bestow auditory superpowers on children. But it does teach them about sound