How the Cearvol Wave Is Bringing Premium Features to the OTC Hearing Aid Market

Welcome to This Week in Hearing. Hello, I’m Bob Traynor, your host for this episode. And today my guest is Heather Andrews, director of audiology for Cearvol Hearing Instruments. Now, interestingly enough, the Cearvol device is an OTC product that we all know that there’s a lot of those out there. But this particular instrument ended up at the Consumer Electronics Show last January and won 17 awards. There’s a whole lot of hearing aids out there that, that go to these shows. But 17 awards is quite unique, and hopefully Dr. Andrews will be able to help us through that a little bit and give us an idea what some of those things were. Thank you so much for being with us today, Heather. And we will get going here a little bit. But, you know, as my colleagues all know that tune into my, my discussions, I always like to find out a little bit about your journey to get to Cearvol. How did that happen? And, and, and, and then a little bit about maybe your role at Cearvol as well. Sure, sure. So my journey started way back, actually. I had a way back. Well, that’s— yeah, we don’t— none of us want to know about the way, you know, way back. Yeah, no, I You know, it actually started in 3rd grade with a teacher that taught me sign language, but that eventually led me to a career in audiology when I got to college. I did a lot of my training at the VA hospital, actually, which was amazing. We had access to all the greatest technology and we didn’t have to worry about, you know, if people could afford hearing aids, we could just fit them with what they needed. And then when I got into the private sector, all of that went away and cost became a huge factor. And that was really, really frustrating for me having come out of the VA. So I was looking for something that was, you know, better, something that we could do to make hearing aids more affordable and accessible. And I actually started the direct-to-consumer, you know, working with direct-to-consumer manufacturers in 2018. So that was a little bit pre-OTC, but it was still FDA regulated, still, you know, still a great option. So I feel like a lot of audiologists are a little skeptical about it, but I feel like that, you know, audiology needs to be involved with, with OTC because we’re trying to make it better and we’re trying to make, you know, the more affordable hearing aids just as good as the prescription hearing aids if we can. Yeah. So, well, yeah. So, so did you started that at the VA in clinics? Any particular VA? Yeah, it was the VA in Johnson City, Tennessee. All right. Down there by some— by Mark Fagelson. And yeah, yeah, he was actually one of my professors. Yeah. Yeah. Mark and I had a very mutual friend who is no longer with us for many years. And then we’ve communicated back and forth with his tinnitus research and so on over the years. Okay. Yeah. So, but anyway, thanks for going through all that. And now again, this device was introduced, I think, at the EUHA meeting in Europe this past year as well. And but the Consumer Electronics Awards, 17 of those are quite unique and Maybe give us a little bit of a highlight on those things, and then we get into talking about maybe some more product-specific concerns. Yeah, yeah. So we, we feel like the Consumer Electronics Awards— we’re really excited about that. It’s really encouraging for us, and we feel like a lot of it was because we were really focused on what the user would want. So, so much more than trying to fit hearing aid technology into a little earbud, we were trying to think about, you know, what would be the perfect hearing aid in 2026? What do users want? So we went with, you know, an AI brain. We wanted it to be intuitive and easy to use, and we wanted it to be stylish. So not so much like in your— a hearing aid, but more like a little earbud that you’re wearing in your ear. So it’s not so, you know, more of a camouflaged type, type style, I guess. Yeah, and, and those were the kinds of awards that the the, the CES people were presenting to the Cearvol products. Yeah, a lot of it had to do with innovative design and new ideas, which is what we’re trying to bring to the table. Yeah, great. Well, tell me a little bit about Cearvol and what, what it really is, and and a little bit about maybe the company and where it came from and some of those things. Yeah, yeah. So the company is— it’s actually been in acoustic technology for a long time. They actually started with headphones and were branching out into hearing aids over the last couple years. So they’re trying to— I mean, their mission is to create equality in health and technology and accessibility for people. So we’re trying to make medical-grade acoustic technology and consumer electronics and how easy they are to use, and we’re trying to merge those together. So hearing aids are normal, and they’re, you know, as natural as putting on a pair of glasses. It’s not so much of a stigma anymore. Well, that’s for sure. I mean, I remember, and I think my the colleagues that tune into some of mine remember that I have said that when I started in audiology, you had to be about 95 years old and be and have about a 90-decibel hearing loss before you’d even think about getting hearing instruments. And a lot of it had to do with the stigma component. Stigma is a whole lot less now. It’s still there, but it’s not nearly as bad as it used to be. Yeah. And when the more stylish things are, the more contemporary something looks the cooler it looks. So exactly, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s it’s nice to see some of the products. And not only the Cearvol products, but many of the other products are beginning to look at some of these kinds of things to make them look more like earbuds and, and, and cool electronic devices that somebody has that others don’t get to have. That kind of thing. Yes, yes, definitely. So how— what, what, what’s the wave? It’s not this, it’s, it’s it’s something else. Yeah, yeah. So it’s our newest product. We just released it in March, I believe. So actually it’s a series. We have the Wave and the Wave Lite. They’re very similar in body style, but the Wave, well, both of them, they have AI integration. So we are trying to improve noise reduction, feedback cancellation, and speech clarity by making adjustments in real time with AI. So that’s pretty cool. Bluetooth compatible, and the Wave itself, not the WaveLight, but the Wave has a touchscreen charging case, which works a lot like a remote control. So for people who don’t like to pull out their phone and use apps all the time, it’s a great option. It just kind of simplifies things a little bit. Okay. And so now, AI, everybody’s talking about AI these days, all the prescription products. I mean, virtually everybody’s hitting it on AI. You don’t hear that very often in the OTC products, however. So what kinds of things does the— how is AI incorporated into the processing and so on to facilitate better performance? Yeah, yeah. So it’s the microphones pick up what’s going on around you. It monitors your environment. And then the processor uses AI to make adjustments in, you know, frequency control, feedback cancellation in real time to better, you know improve the signal-to-noise ratio in real time. Okay. Well it’s, it’s unique though, I think, for OTC products to, to have an AI kind of component within them even though Many of the prescription products are beginning to— well, Starkey suggested they had those, that for quite a while, but many other manufacturers are now building special chips for their products to add to what they have already and those kinds of things. So— Absolutely. It’s getting smarter and it’s great because, you know, OTC is taking a lot of things that are only available in prescription and we’re trying to incorporate them in OTC right now. So that’s part of why I said audiology needs to be involved. That’s how things get better. Absolutely. So, so you mentioned the touchscreen charging case at one time, I think, in our discussion here. What kind of a— that also sounds a little bit unique about this particular device. Yeah, yeah. It’s actually, it’s the first one I’ve seen, at least in OTC. So it’s, like I said, it works a lot like a remote control. So for people who don’t want to use the app or they’re having trouble with buttons on their hearing aids, they can pull out their charging case and you can access things like the volume and changing the environmental program and adjusting the music volume and things like that. A lot of features that you have on the app, you just pull out your charging case and use that for people who don’t like to use their phone a whole lot. That’s an interesting difference. And now what about the, some of the other products that Cearvol has other than this Wave device? And of course, hopefully my colleagues are throwing some, throwing some pictures up so that as we’re talking, so that we can, we can show these instruments as, as they come across. But the— so what other products are out there from Cearvol in addition to the Wave instruments? Yeah, yeah. So again, we have the Wave, we have the Wave Lite, which is kind of a basic version of the Wave, and then we have the Nano, which is a It’s a very simple hearing aid. It’s for people who don’t really want all the bells and whistles that come with a hearing aid, just kind of a plug and play. So it doesn’t connect with an app. It doesn’t have buttons on the device itself. All the buttons are actually on the charger. So again, you can use your charger like a remote control. And then we are working on an open-ear hearing aid that we’re developing right now. Hopefully it’ll be released later this year. It’s basically a little loop that goes around the back of your ear So it’s an open-fit design for mild hearing loss, but it allows a little bit more of a natural sound flow and less occlusion. So we’re excited about that coming soon. Now, you know, people with mild hearing losses and even maybe a little into the moderate level often always told me, you know, in clinic that, you know, the only reason I’m here is because my wife says I turn up the football games do this and that, and then basketball games and all these different baseball games, whatever it is. And I really like to listen to what the announcer is saying, but I can’t really understand. And, and many of the prescription products now all have situations where you can hook the devices directly to the TV. And I viewed a video on the Cearvol product that that showed how that is done with your instrument, which is, I think, unique in the OTC components of the products that we have. So yeah, so tell us a little about that. Yeah, yeah, I’m glad you brought that up. I’d forgotten about that. No, the so we have an aux-in port on the charging case for the Wave Lit and the Wave where you can plug your charging case into a headphone jack and it will And that can be on a TV, a computer, a tablet, anything with a headphone jack, and it will transmit the sound directly to your hearing aid. So you don’t have to turn up the volume on the TV. You can just turn it up on your hearing aid if you want to. And you don’t have to get earplugs for other people that are around you either. No, no, no. You know, Heather, I understand that this is another unique component about this instrumentation is you guys have a pretty good support for individuals that are working with the, the Cearvol product. Yes, absolutely. So I mean, we, we do— a lot of OTC companies don’t offer, you know, audiology services and things. I always, if I’m looking around at OTC, I’m always looking for that specifically because it is very important. And we do offer things that everyone offers, the onboarding tutorials in the app and the hearing test in the app to kind of help things set up. We have a great customer service team that’s very responsive. If something happens or you have trouble with your hearing aids, you can always call or email us. But we also offer audiology, which is probably the biggest thing, having that professional support. Of course, that’s the biggest thing. Yes. Yeah, I’m a little biased maybe, but no, it really— a lot of users benefit from having audiology, even if you don’t think about it at first. Audiologists can help you. Set expectations for what the hearing aids are going to do, what the sounds are you’re going to hear. There’s a lot of an adjustment period with hearing aids. It’s not just put it on and everything sounds super clear right away. It takes some time to get used to it. It takes time for your brain to learn what to do with the information it’s getting. So your audiologist can help you with all of that as well as the programming. A lot of people, you know, they program their hearing aids, they’re pushing all the buttons, they don’t really understand what’s happening when they push all the buttons and all of a sudden it sounds like a robot in your ear, and people get very frustrated quickly. So having that professional support is really, really helpful in the beginning, especially. Well, particularly for those who, who find the product online and and, and are attempting to use the instrumentation without a whole lot of anybody around, just reading through the manuals and so on. And then there’s also another unique thing that for now, and some of the OTC products do offer some, a return privilege of some kind, but 45 days is quite a long one. Yes, yes. And it comes back to that adjustment period. We know it takes time to adjust to a hearing aid. It’s not a right away I know whether it’s going to fit or not. So we try to give or we give about 6 weeks for you to understand if it’s going to work for you or not. If it doesn’t, you can return them for a full refund. Wow. Well, again, this is probably one of the more awarded devices I think I’ve seen in the OTC market. And so, so it makes some sense to at least maybe check out the, this particular device to see what it can do for your patients. And I’ve always been a very high advocate of using OTC products as a starter kind of product for patients that, that either don’t have the funds to to move forward with prescription, or if indeed these products are, are, are just something that the— and the patient comes in, and you’ve heard this too, I’m sure, Heather, you know, I have a hearing loss, I know, but it’s not a $6,000 or $7,000 hearing loss. Right, right. It’s a $400 hearing loss, maybe, or something like that. So hard to justify that price tag sometimes. It is. Sometimes it is. Well, thanks so much for being with us today, Heather, and talking about this highly awarded Cearvol product. And, and those of you out there, you may want to consider at least a look at this instrument because it could be a nice starter kind of product for, for your patients. Otherwise, thank you for being with us today at— Thank you for having me. You bet. Thanks so much, Heather, for being with us. And those of you out there, thanks for being with us at This Week in Hearing.