Disruptive Technologies and Their Role in Expanding the Awareness of Hearing Health

Over the last decade, the hearing-health-care industry has been, and is, witnessing tremendous innovation in the way hearing-care technology is delivered to consumers, as well as in advancements in signal processing using artificial intelligence. Although the major hearing aid manufacturers developed the initial delivery models and invested in research to advance the performance of hearing technology over the past few decades, the landscape is changing.

Legislation to develop over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids and the decreasing cost of technology have brought consumer-electronics companies to seek a piece of the pie. I would posit that this shift in delivery models for hearing technology will bring with it an increased awareness of hearing loss and its associated conditions, which is something audiology has struggled with over the years. Could this be our “Got Milk?” moment.

We are already seeing an unprecedented wave marketing hearing care directly to the consumer. These advertisements seek to convince individuals to buy specific products but also, in most cases, explain in different ways what the numerous effects of hearing loss are and how a certain product can help compensate for these conditions.

I don't think this is a bad thing. Our profession has struggled for years with negative attitudes and stigma toward hearing loss and hearing aids. We also have documented as a profession how we struggle with low adoption rates for individuals diagnosed with mild, or even moderate, hearing loss.

The surge in consumer-electronics companies entering the hearing-technology market will bring an expanded awareness of hearing-health needs, due to consumer-focused marketing. Many individuals seeing these advertisements won't know their degree of hearing loss. While there will be countless numbers of online hearing-screening tests, I would posit that this is where audiology will be able to offer guidance and play a crucial role in ensuring that patients with hearing loss are fit with the most appropriate product for their hearing loss.

Although we have touted the benefits of screening hearing over the years, I suspect we will begin to see a systematic increase in our clinics in patients asking for a hearing test. With approximately 30 million people with hearing loss in the United States[1] seeing marketing focused on how to treat hearing loss and approximately more than 13,000 audiologists[2] at work in the nation, hearing screening will become a priority and audiologists could become very busy. It will be incumbent on audiology to set forth when patients should be screened for hearing loss and what this screening should entail.

In this month's issue of JAAA, Jordan, Baiduc, and Spankovich analyze National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) audiometric data to describe the age ranges that show evidence of hearing loss. This new population data collected from a civilian non-institutionalized population provides important new insights on hearing-screening recommendations for adults.

Publication History

Article published online:
01 September 2022

• References

• 1 Lin FR, Niparko JK, Ferrucci L. Hearing loss prevalence in the United States. [Letter] Arch Intern Med 2011; 171 (20) 1851-1852
• 2 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Occupational Outlook Handbook: Audiologists. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/healthcare/audiologists.htm