Oticon To Double The Processing Power Of Its Hearing Aids With New Flagship ‘Agil’ Family

William Demant Holding Group’s Oticon hearing-aid brand is getting ready to introduce a new line of hearing aids with twice the processing power of its current flagship family and a new set of sound processing algorithms that the Denmark company claims will substantially improve users’ comprehension of speech in noise. Oticon’s new Agil family will be formally launched in March and be shown for the first time at the American Academy of Audiology convention in San Diego in April. The Agil family will serve a broad range of hearing needs from moderate to severe hearing loss and will come in form factors ranging from behind-the-ear (BTE) to receiver in the ear (RITE). Oticon is promoting two innovations enabled by the more powerful processing platform: Speech Guard and Spatial Sound 2.0.

Oticon says Speech Guard is based on a new wireless platform with twice the calculation power of its current flagship Oticon Epoq family. It includes a new processing kernel that it says will preserve signal fidelity–quality of sound, especially human voices–far more effectively than in the past. At the same time, Spatial Sound 2.0, a “spatial noise management system” that “maintains natural acoustic cues.” The platform integrates seamlessly with the Oticon ConnectLine wireless listening system.

“With Oticon Agil,we have virtually improved all the advanced features already available in Oticon Epoq,” William Demant Holding President and CEO Niels Jacobsen said in a statement to investors. “Our almost three years of everyday experience with wireless audiology and connectivity has given us valuable insights enabling us to bring forward a significantly better hearing solution.” Among those insights is the fact that better comprehension of speech based on more natural processing of spatial sound reduces the cognitive “overhead” required to understand speech, enabling hearing-aid users to better understand speech with less stress, Oticon said. The company said it is focused on new research showing that struggles to comprehend speech can significantly increase fatigue and impair performance of everyday activities in ways that lead directly to loss of income.

Every few years the major global hearing-aid manufacturers release their new processing platforms, promising to deliver breakthroughs in comprehension of speech in noise. It’s gratifying to see a major manufacturer linking its new product platform so tightly to new research on how hearing loss directly effects people’s health and incomes.

Race To Acquire Siemens Hearing Aids Heats Up As Cochlear Ltd. And Synthes Join Fray

Reuters quotes sources saying Cochlear Ltd., one of three global suppliers of cochlear implant devices as well as a leader in bone-anchored hearing aids, intends to join two private equity firms in making a multi-billion dollar bid for Siemens Hearing Instruments, which is being spun off by its parent company. The report also says Synthes, a global medical equipment manufacturer, also will join the bidding.

This is a huge story for the hearing aid industry, which is going through a wave of consolidation as the leading global players try to simultaneously gain market share by broadening their distribution at the low end of the market while building war chests for a new generation of R&D-led innovation at the high end of the market. Putting the very high end digital technologies required for cochlear implants under the same roof as mainstream digital hearing aids will give a shot of much-needed energy into high-end hearing-aid innovation.

Sonova CEO Valentin Chapero kicked off the industry’s consolidation charge in 2007 with his failed bid to acquire GN Resound and vault to undisputed leader of the global industry. Undaunted, in November 2009 Sonova made a bid to acquire Advanced Bionics (AB), the U.S.-based cochlear implant maker. Then in January 2010 Sonova acquired InSound Medical, developer of an innovative hearing aid implanted deep within the ear canal. Assuming the AB deal passes regulatory approvals, Sonova have a vertically line of hearing assistance products, offering everything from inexpensive entry-level hearing aids all the way up to the most sophisticated cochlear implant technologies available.

Cochlear’s strategy appears to be similar to Phonak’s, but it will enter the market from the opposite direction by leveraging its strong position in high-end cochlear implant technology to move into the mainstream hearing-aid market with the acquisition of Siemens Hearing, one of the world’s seven largest hearing-aid suppliers.

Six Bidders Compete To Acquire Siemens Hearing Instruments

Siemens has narrowed down the list of potential acquirers in its auction of the Siemens Hearing Instruments business to five private equity firms plus one strategic acquirer. Siemens is among the top five hearing aid companies worldwide but, according to news reports, its shrinking sales and profit margins lagged industry leaders Sonova and William Demant in 2009. News reports put the value of the unit at more than 2 billion euros ($2.88 billion US). The winning bidder is expected to be picked by the end of February. I can’t wait to see whether the newly independent entity will inject a shot of investment and growth into a hearing-aid industry that’s badly in need of new competitive energy.

HearUSA Scores Hearing-Aid Distribution Deal With AARP

HearUSA, the U.S. chain of hearing-aid retail outlets, scored a major distribution deal with AARP Services, Inc. to offer discounted hearing aids and extended warranties to the nearly 40 million U.S. members of the world’s largest service organization for adults aged 50 and older. Next to an endorsement by Oprah, a distribution deal with AARP is one of the most coveted marketing prizes for companies selling to middle-aged-and-older consumers. AARP has long offered advice on hearing health but has been short on commercial offers for hearing aids to match the discounts it provides for vision products and general health insurance plans. The HearUSA deal should provide similar incentives for seniors to take care of their hearing needs, although the initial press release held back on details of the discounts and other offers that will initially be offered to customers in New Jersey and Florida and later throughout the United States.

The arrangement is good news for Siemens, which is a major investor in HearUSA and supplies most of the hearing-aid products sold by the company. In addition to providing a financial boost to HearUSA, the AARP deal may enable geographic expansion of its retail chain, which currently sells hearing aids through 180 company-owned hearing care centers in 10 states in the U.S. and its Hearing Care Network comprised of over 1,900 affiliated audiologists in 49 states.

HearUSA this week also announced second-quarter net income of $1.1 million, compared to a half-million-dollar loss in the previous quarter. Like other companies in the hearing-aid industry, HearUSA has seen a falloff in sales due to the recession, but cost-control measures in addition to the sale of its Canadian subsidiary boosted both the bottom line and balance sheet in the second quarter of 2009.

Opinion: Hearing Aid Pricing Should be More Transparent

The recent Consumer Reports survey of hearing-aid pricing and fitting practices highlighted a growing problem for the hearing-aid industry. Increasingly, consumers are starting to wonder why a few small digital components that can be purchased individually from wholesalers for tens of dollars each (digital signal processor, microphone, amplifier and software) end up in a set of hearing aids that can cost thousands of dollars. It’s time for more transparent pricing in the hearing-aid industry. Digital technologies are becoming standardized, and the cost of components continues to decline.

And there are good alternatives to the established brands now for cost-conscious, tech-savvy do-it-yourselfers: America Hears, which builds top-quality digital hearing aids and sells them online, programs them to your audiogram at the factory, sends you the software to make your own adjustments, and has licensed audiologists at the end of the phone to give you as much help as you need. All for under $1,000 a hearing aid. But most other comparable top-quality digital hearing aids still cost two to three times that much. Why? The answer is in the cost of the service required to get a custom fit. If you don’t dare do it yourself, a good audiologist truly is worth his or her weight in gold, especially if your hearing profile is complex. Getting a comfortable fit and programming assistance tuned to your audiogram usually requires multiple tries and is seemingly as much art as science. An audiologist who will stick with you through multiple adjustments is worth a significant mark-up. But it’s fair to question the value of the markup above and beyond the wholesale price of the basic hearing instrument components.

The hearing industry for the most part remains stuck in a very old distribution model which has restricted growth and shut off affordable options for a large segment of potential buyers in need of hearing assistance. Today most hearing aids are sold by audiologists who charge a single price for the hearing instrument and the service they provide. They give you a hearing test and fit you with hearing aids that meet your specific needs. Their invoice most often does not include line items for the cost of the hearing test, for the ear molds, for the hearing instrument, or for follow-up service. If it did, you would see there’s a lot of cost built into the time they put into helping you out. If you don’t need much help, they make a lot of money. If you are a difficult case requiring a lot of adjustments, they make less. This model worked well until recently. But now, digital technologies are making many more options available for people with different kinds of hearing loss. Open-fit designs mean many consumers don’t need an earmold fitting, and good digital amplification is making it possible for many people to get the hearing assistance they need from low-cost manufacturers selling direct, over the counter. One manufacturer, Songbird Hearing, is even offering disposable hearing aids that you can buy direct from their web site to address mild hearing loss, without a hearing test if you sign a medical waiver. Read more

You Can Trade In Old Hearing Aids For $200 Back From America Hears

If you don’t want to grind up your old unused hearing aids in a blender as seen in the funny Blendtec video, and if you have already made your charitable donations for the year and don’t feel you need to donate them for recycling, there is another way to get them out of your drawer: you can trade in two of your old aids for $200 off the price of a pair of new digital hearing aids from America Hears. Read more

Yes, You Can Buy Premium-Quality Digital Hearing Aids Over The Internet

I recently got a new pair of hearing aids, and I’m as excited as if I’d just bought a new sports car. One of the reasons I’m so happy is that I was able to take ownership of the process for the first time by getting them from America Hears, Inc., which sells and supports hearing-aid consumers directly over the internet. Read more

FDA Warns Viagra, Cialis and Levitra May Cause Sudden Hearing Loss

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has ordered makers of the erectile dysfunction drugs Viagra, Cialis and Levitra to post prominent warnings on their labels of the possilbity they may cause sudden hearing loss. The FDA said it has received 29 reports of sudden hearing loss, both with and without accompanying ringing in the ears, vertigo, or dizziness following usage of the drugs. Most cases involved one ear, with either a partial or complete loss of usual hearing. Read more

Vaccination Can Lessen Meningitis Risk For Cochlear Implant Patients

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a new warning that cochlear implant patients make sure they get vaccinated against bacterial meningitis, a potentially deadly infection causing inflammation of the meninges, or lining of the brain. Read more

Gennum Abandons Hearing-Aid Market With DSP Chip and Headset Spinoffs

Gennum Corp. of Canada, long one of the leading suppliers of digital signal processing (DSP) chips and other technologies to the hearing-aid and headset industries, is abandoning the hearing-aid market with the spinout of its hearing instrument design and manufacturing operations to a private equity group and the sale of its consumer Bluetooth headset business to a consumer electronics company based in Sweden. Read more

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