STAFA, SWITZERLAND – Phonak parent company, Sonova Holding AG, announced today that its Audiological Care business has launched the SilentCloud™* medical app. The app offers a combination of therapies, making it “a powerful tool for self-paced tinnitus management”. It is part of an expanded portfolio of holistic hearing care services which supports Sonova’s innovation of the consumer journey.
Sonova offers a range of services adjacent to hearing aid fitting. These provide additional value for consumers by addressing different medical needs which often co-exist with hearing loss.1 One common symptom associated with hearing loss is tinnitus. With the SilentCloud app, Sonova provides “a user-centered digital tool for tinnitus self-management which consolidates a range of proven therapies recommended in international clinical guidelines”. 2
Tinnitus affects 10% to 15% of the adult population and 20% of those affected experience it as bothersome, or even debilitating, requiring clinical intervention.3 Four out of five people with tinnitus also experience some degree of hearing loss.4
Even though there is currently no cure for it, many approaches can relieve the burden of tinnitus. Recommendations for tinnitus management include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy3 that can be combined with sound therapies, education, and counseling.
“SilentCloud is a subscription-based medical app which will empower patients to manage their tinnitus symptoms from the comfort of their own home while being guided by one of our trained hearing care experts,“ says Christophe Fond, Group Vice President Audiological Care at Sonova.
“By providing options for managing a co-existing medical need, the app will support Sonova’s strategic goal to reach more people with hearing loss and to engage with them earlier in their hearing care journey.”
All content offered in SilentCloud consists of validated approaches for tinnitus management.2 The app is currently available in Belgium and Italy and can be downloaded on the App Store® or on Google Play™. A roll-out in more countries will follow later this year.
References:
1 Besser, J., Stropahl, M., Urry, E., Launer, S. (2018). Comorbidities of hearing loss and the implications of multimorbidity for audiological care. Hearing research, 369, 3-14.
2 Please consult https://www.lapperre.be/nl/tinnitus/silentcloud/bibliotheek/ if you are interested in further information regarding supporting evidence for SilentCloud.
3 Cima, R., Mazurek, B., Haider, H., Kikidis, D., Lapira, A., Noreña, A., & Hoare, D. J. (2019). A multidisciplinary European guideline for tinnitus: diagnostics, assessment, and treatment. HNO, 67(Suppl 1), 10–42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00106-019-0633-7
4 Baguley, D., McFerran, D., & Hall, D. (2013). Tinnitus. The Lancet, 382, 1600-1607. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)60142-7
* SilentCloudTM is registered in the European Union, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
App Store is a trademark of Apple Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.
Google Play and the Google Play logo are trademarks of Google LLC.
Source: Sonova
