S8E1: Finding a Balance    |   Listen to S8E1
Throughout any health care professional’s life, new opportunities will emerge as new technologies allow for change in patient care. And right now, hearing health care is seeing an explosion of new possibilities. But not every new technique is or should necessarily be adopted without careful consideration of the costs and benefits of adoption.

S8E2: TeleAudiology    |   Listen to S8E2
The COVID‑19 challenge pushed TeleAudiology to the forefront of everyone’s mind. But what will happen once the hearing health care field gets back to normal over the next year? Now is the time for all hearing health care providers to actively decide how distance care techniques can be worked into day‑to‑day practice.

S8E3: Sensors in Hearing Aids    |   Listen to S8E3
Sensors have become widespread in wearable consumer technologies. And these small, low-cost and energy-efficient data gatherers have started to show up in hearing aids. The important questions that need to be discussed revolve around how much hearing benefit can they provide for our patients. Are they a fad or do they offer true care benefits?

S8E4: The Use of Big Data in Hearing Care   |   Listen to S8E4
Many areas of health care have found ways to improve patient treatment by accumulating data from patients across the country and even across the world. Their knowledge of the effectiveness of different approaches becomes multiplied many times over when a provider can rely not just on their own experience but on the experience of hundreds or thousands of other professionals. But Big Data approaches have yet to gain a solid foothold in our field.

S8E5: Cloud Computing for Hearing Aids   |   Listen to S8E5
Despite the advances in the processing power of the digital platforms imbedding in modern hearing aids, there are still times when more processing power is required. And that is where Cloud Computing comes in, where the signal processing, data storage or other digital functions can take place. Despite the potential, the possibilities of Cloud Computing have yet to be fully described in our field.

S7E1: What is Aging?    |   Listen to S7E1
There are many theories of aging. We are not in the business of altering that path. We are in the business of assisting the patient to make best use of the function that remains.

S7E2: Age‑related Hearing Loss: What Changes?    |   Listen to S7E2
The effects of aging can affect the body in many different ways. When focusing specifically on the auditory system, the same analysis applies.

S7E3: How Good is the Older Ear?    |   Listen to S7E3
In the presence of the physical changes that come along with age‑related hearing loss, it is important to recognize what the altered peripheral auditory system can and cannot do.

S7E4: What Changes in the Older Brain?  |   Listen to S7E4
Speech understanding happens in the brain. With that in mind, we take a look at what age-related cortical changes we can expect in older individuals.

S7E5: The Older Brain in Action  |   Listen to S7E5
The physical changes that come along with aging inevitably will affect how effective the brain can be when performing complex processing tasks.

S6E1: The Big Picture    |   Listen to S6E1
A communication approach that is rapidly becoming a classic is to start with the Why and the What and, if done successfully, avoids the need to get bogged down in the How. Far too often, discussions with patients get down to details that quickly obscure the bigger picture of the struggles the patient is facing and the solutions you would recommend.

S6E2: Making the Patient Ready    |   Listen to S6E2
We have developed a framework of the types of classic behaviors that patients will exhibit when approaching the hearing aid process. Understanding the key differences in the behavior patterns is essential in planning your discussion with the patient.

S6E3: The Potential Danger with the Willing Patient    |   Listen to S6E3
Some patients show up who seem ready and willing to get the process started. Often they are armed with a lot of internet-based information. But being Willing may not be the same as truly being Ready, and the difference can potentially derail the process.

S6E4: The Conflicted Patient   |   Listen to S6E4
Denial is one of the most common reaction patterns in adults who have acquired hearing loss. In order to help this patient move forward, it is important to understand the source of the conflict and help the patient change the narrative.

S6E5: Recognizing Normalization   |   Listen to S6E5
Aging is a fact of life. So much so that some patients may be so resigned to age-related body change that they lose the passion for good hearing. Rekindling this passion is key to helping these patients move forward.

S5E1: What are Brain Hearing™ technologies?   |   Listen to S5E1
Brain Hearing is our approach to developing solutions. But what makes a technology a Brain Hearing technology?

S5E2: Platforms matter   |   Listen to S5E2
Creating effective signal processing for digital audio signals requires a powerful engine. Over the years, we have placed great emphasis on developing platforms that make best sense for the approaches we want to bring to your patients.

S5E3: Our signature technology: Open Sound Navigator™    |   Listen to S5E3
Years of research and development went into creating a groundbreaking approach to the problem of communicating in complex environments. Open Sound Navigator shows what happens when you combine a powerful engine with great thinking.

S5E4: Using the binaural system: Spatial Sound™   |   Listen to S5E4
At the core of our Brain Hearing approach is the determination to provide the cognitive system the best information that we can. Binaural information is a powerful tool to help the listener handle complex situations.

S5E5: Compression without compromise: Speech Guard™   |   Listen to S5E5
The speech signal is a complex, multi-layered source of information for the cognitive system. It is incumbent on signal processing to best reproduce that signal in the purest form possible.

S4E1: Getting Off on the Right Foot   |   Listen to S4E1
At the end of Season 2, we talked about the difference between the Fitting Session and the Fitting. For most new hearing aid users, the loss develops over a number of years. Becoming a successful hearing aid user is not an instantaneous transformation.

S4E2: Gathering the Right Kind of Information   |   Listen to S4E2
Although it seems self-evident, before you can solve a patient’s problems, you need to understand them. The ability of the patient to verbalize their observations sometimes can be tricky.

S4E3: Setting Expectations   |   Listen to S4E3
Despite the widespread surfing behavior on the part of new users, patients and family members can often have expectations that do not always align with what will likely actually happen. We have some ideas that may help.

S4E4: X’s and O’s   |   Listen to S4E4
Despite great strides in digital signal processing, there are still some basic physical and acoustical factors that simply have to be done the right way. A great fitting can go awry if some simple basic techniques are not addressed.

S4E5: Let’s Talk About Targets   |   Listen to S4E5
Targets are a great place to start a fitting. But perhaps too often hitting targets are seen as the end goal of a fitting. And that belief is not consistent with what we know about human perception in the presence of hearing loss. 

S3E1: Assumptions about Prescribed Fittings   |   Listen to S3E1
Standard fitting approaches are built on a foundation of assumptions. How those assumptions shape our fitting approaches deserve a second look. 

S3E2: Ski Fittings: Examining the Situation   |   Listen to S3E2
The most common special population is ski-slope hearing loss. Digging into the nature of this classification shines a spotlight on our standard fitting assumptions. 

S3E3: Ski Fittings: Fitting Ideas   |   Listen to S3E3
At Oticon, we have used a specific approach to these fittings for over 20 years. We will explain our thinking.

S3E4: Rising Audiograms: Fitting Ideas   |   Listen to S3E4
Although not common, these patients require a significant change in fitting mindset.

S2E5: Irregular Audiograms: Fitting Ideas   |   Listen to S3E5
We fit to usable hearing, not to an audiogram. These cases make a very specific point to consider. 

S2E1: The Reaction to Aging   |   Listen to S2E1
Hearing Loss is just one of many potential body changes that occur as adults get older. There are different ways in which a person can react to these changes and understanding the range of reactions is step 1 in being able to help the patient make a positive decision to address their hearing loss. 

S2E2: The Imagery of Hearing Aids   |   Listen to S2E2
Aging can draw out powerful emotions in the adult.  A few years back, we engaged a research group that used a groundbreaking approach to help us better understand what hearing aids mean to the person considering their use. 

S2E3: The Interpersonal Cost of Delay   |   Listen to S2E3
The true effect of hearing loss is not about where a person cannot hear - it is about who they cannot hear.  Hearing loss is a disruptor of relationships, but perhaps this distancing between the patient and friends or family can be exactly the path to a constructive response by the patient.

S2E4: The Cognitive Cost of Delay   |   Listen to S2E4
Emerging evidence over the past several years has shown us that the cost of ignoring hearing loss may be more serious than we used to think.  The natural withdrawal from social & family interactions may have serious implications for the long-term cognitive health of older adults.

S2E5: Changing the Conversation   |   Listen to S2E5
What does it take to help a patient move towards making a positive decision about addressing their hearing difficulties?  It starts with an honest examination of what is really important to them and then continues with developing a plan to move in that direction. 

S1E1: The Oticon Brain Hearing Approach   |   Listen to S1E1
We have long believed that the role of amplification is to fully support the natural cognitive system.

S1E2: OpenSound Navigator™   |   Listen to S1E2
OSN set a new standard in how complex environments need to be managed and we examine the background of why we created this important approach.

S1E3: The Reality of Complex Environments   |   Listen to S1E3
In order to solve a problem, you need to understand it and we have specific beliefs about the situations that patients struggle in the most.

S1E4: Speech Understanding and Sensorineural Hearing Loss   |   Listen to S1E4
Hearing care is a clinical discipline and all effective treatment must start with a realistic understanding of the condition we treat.

S1E5: The Aging Cognitive System   |   Listen to S1E5
For the older adult, there are important implications of the aging process of the central nervous system that will fundamentally affect the work that hearing care professionals do.

OpenSound Booster – Oticon Opn S™   |     Watch Video 1
With Opn S, a new Very High setting offers even more help in everyday situations to those patients who need it most. Patients also have the option to select extra support from OpenSound Navigator™, regardless of their pre-defined setting. Whenever patients feel they need an extra boost, they can activate the OpenSound Booster, available in the Oticon ON App.

OpenSound Optimizer™ – Oticon Opn S   |     Watch Video 2
OpenSound Optimizer technology gives you the flexibility to provide up to six additional decibels of gain in an open fitting without the risk of feedback. With optimal gain, open fittings and no feedback, the OpenSound Optimizer brings the open sound experience to the next level for your patients by delivering up to 30% more speech cues to the brain.* This helps improve speech understanding without compromising clarity or sound quality for your patients.
*Callaway 2019, Oticon Whitepaper. 

OpenSound Navigator - Oticon Opn Play™   |     Watch Video 3
Oticon Opn Play gives your child 360º access to the world and helps your child differentiate between meaningful sound and irrelevant, disturbing sound. Our OpenSound Navigator technology improves speech understanding in noisy environments and supports incidental learning by giving your child access to multiple speakers in the environment. We developed OpenSound Navigator to allow the child to get the most possible out of the rich world of sound.