Technology Trends Shaping the Future of Hearing Healthcare

Presented by Brent Edwards, PhD

Director of the National Acoustic Laboratories, Sydney, Australia

Learning Objectives

1. Contrast the differences between a hearing aid, a hearable, or an over-the-counter hearing device.
2. Describe the benefits of and barriers to teleaudiology.
3. Evaluate how emerging technologies can affect their practice of hearing healthcare.

The pace of innovation in hearing healthcare is faster than it has ever been, with changes to technology, services and delivery channels that will forever impact people with hearing loss and the professionals who provide hearing healthcare. These advances span the hearing landscape from the medical domain across to the consumer domain, from implantable devices to OTC to self-diagnostic apps. This talk will provide the context for which telemedicine, machine learning, new delivery models and other advances will shape who will be the new consumers of hearing healthcare, how they will receive treatment, and what those treatments may look like.

Brent Edwards, Ph.D.,is the Director of the National Acoustic Laboratories in Sydney, Australia. For over 22 years he led research and development teams at major hearing aid companies (GN ReSound, Starkey) and Silicon Valley startups (SoundID, EarLens) that have developed innovative technologies and clinical tools that have benefitted hearing aid wearers and hearing healthcare professionals worldwide. Dr. Edwards founded and developed the Starkey Hearing Research Center in Berkeley, California that was a leading site for research in hearing impairment and cognition. Dr. Edwards is a Fellow of the Acoustical Society of America, a Fellow of the International Collegium of Rehabilitative Audiology, an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham’s School of Medicine, and an Adjunct Professor at Macquarie University.