hearing aid

Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.

While the crew recovers from an incredible week in SF for TechCrunch Disrupt, we dug through the archives for a conversation you may have missed. Natasha was joined by TC+ reporter Rebecca Szkutak to wade through the news of the week. It was frantic, it was full, and forgettable it was not!

Here's what we got into:

• Quick note from Becca on Neumann's return and if follow-on funding will be a possibility for Flow -- given some investors reactions.
• Our two deals of the week include an innovative step for hearing aid startups and a new take on international money transfer.
• For hearing loss tech, a new FDA ruling allows hearing aids to be sold over the counter. We dove in to how this regulatory change helps open the door for startups to innovate in the category.
• Speaking of regulatory pains, we spoke about how employee-benefits startups might escape cost cuts as companies seek to retain talent. Don't know about you but I'd prefer to lose free food over mental health support.
• We ended with notes on two geographies.
• Looking at the Midwest, we talked about how LPs aren't backing funds in the region this year despite many VCs considering it to be one of the safer areas to invest right now.
• Comparing the Southeast and Midwest, we spoke about how lower valuations are helping fuel both regions to have a good year.

And that's all for now. We'll catch you next week, and in the meantime if you're feeling up to it, consider leaving us a great rating on Apple Podcasts. It goes a long way.

Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PDT and Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. PDT, so subscribe to us onApple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify a_nd all the casts._

Credits: Equity is hosted by TechCrunch's Alex Wilhelm and Mary Ann Azevedo. We are produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

In the wake of last month’s FDA rule allowing some hearing aids to be sold over-the-counter, more of this $6 billion industry’s marketing is set to shift to DTC. Blake Cadwell, founder & CEO of online marketplace Soundly, discusses the impact on device manufacturers and other players.

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Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines.

This week, Natasha was joined by TC+ reporter Rebecca Szkutak to wade through the news of the week. It was frantic, it was full, and forgettable it was not!

Here's what we got into:

• Quick note from Becca on Neumann's return and if follow-on funding will be a possibility for Flow -- given some investors reactions. 
• Our two deals of the week include an innovative step for hearing aid startups and a new take on international money transfer.
• For hearing loss tech, a new FDA ruling allows hearing aids to be sold over the counter. We dove in to how this regulatory change helps open the door for startups to innovate in the category.
• Speaking of regulatory pains, we spoke about how employee-benefits startups might escape cost cuts as companies seek to retain talent. Don't know about you but I'd prefer to lose free food over mental health support.
• We ended with notes on two geographies.
• Looking at the Midwest, we talked about how LPs aren't backing funds in the region this year despite many VCs considering it to be one of the safer areas to invest right now.
• Comparing the Southeast and Midwest, we spoke about how lower valuations are helping fuel both regions to have a good year.

And that's all for now. We'll catch you next week, and in the meantime if you're feeling up to it, consider leaving us a great rating on Apple Podcasts. It goes a long way.

Equity drops every Monday at 7 a.m. PDT and Wednesday and Friday at 6 a.m. PDT, so subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts, Overcast, Spotify and all the casts.

Credits: Equity is hosted by TechCrunch's Alex Wilhelm and Mary Ann Azevedo. We are produced by Theresa Loconsolo with editing by Kell. Bryce Durbin is our Illustrator. We'd also like to thank the audience development team and Henry Pickavet, who manages TechCrunch audio products.

This week’s IpX True North Podcast episode features Eric Pettes, Director of QA/RA for Bose Health, as he shares with IpX President Joseph Anderson the Bose journey of expansion into the medical device industry with their development of the world’s first direct to consumer hearing aid. Eric and Joe discuss:

• Building a quality management system and Bose’s enterprise-wide commitment to quality as a  process-based approach 
• Bose’s growth into Class 1 and Class 2 medical devices, the challenges of meeting regulatory states’ requirements, and receiving approval for a Class 2 device
• The innovation from an over-the-counter hearing aid device that provides freedom, privacy, affordability and functionality for those in need with the support of a user-friendly application 
• The dedication behind launching a new product with a 90-day implementation period and 15 workstream teams while simultaneously entering a new market with the support of Bose’s unique system for traceability and senior executives
• The Bose shared vision for the future and commitment to making a difference for its workforce and consumers

Learn more about Bose and their products by visiting their website.

Connect with IpX to hear more industry thought leaders. Learn how IpX can help you create your company’s DNA and how our True North service model empowers your organization to bring the most innovative products to market with true sustainability and scalability through our process experts. https://ipxhq.com/

Stay in touch with us!

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Contact us for info on IpX or for interest in being a podcast guest: info@ipxhq.com

All podcasts produced by Elevate Media Group.

Hearing loss affects young and old alike and you are never too young or too old to protect your hearing. There is also help, Hearing aids have come a long way--high-tech tiny computers have replaced the clunky, "banana" hearing aids.

This episode's guest is Dr. Renee Zimmerman, assistant professor in the TTUHSC School of Health Professions.

Janice Schacter Lintz is a passionate, accomplished hearing loss consultant and advocate. She is well known and respected for her ability to assess situations, identify areas for improvement, recommend solutions, and implement programs that help organizations improve customer service and grow profits. Her ability to break down issues and do what is needed to affect change has earned her unprecedented access to business leaders, government officials, political leaders, and respected academians around the world.

Since 2002, Janice has become the global “go-to” person on all matters related to access for people who are deaf or hard of hearing. Equipped with an undergraduate degree in business, a law degree, and experience as a successful litigator, Janice leverages her broad background to articulate compelling business cases for organizations in both the for-profit and not-for-profit worlds to improve hearing access for customers with hearing loss. 

See http://www.hearingaccess.com

A culture lover, Janice felt her heart sink whenever her daughter – diagnosed with hearing loss at 2 ½ – struggled to understand museum guides and actors on stage, even with hearing aids. Not one to wait, Janice plunged into the research and learned that cultural venues could provide better hearing access with relatively standard technology, such as the induction loop, a coil placed around a room that wirelessly transmits amplified sound to a hearing aid.

Janice works with domestic and international organizations to benchmark best practices and helps clients leverage the most effective solutions for their situations. Working with multiple organizations, she helped the NYC Transit recommend that induction loops be included in all NYC subway information booths and call boxes as part of President Obama’s $13.5 million Stimulus Package. She also worked with the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission to implement this same technology in all taxis. New York City is the first United States city to offer this technology in its transit systems.

The New York City resident and mother of two is 2020 WBENC WeTHRIVE Program in Partnership with IBM Attendee, 2018 The Points Guy + Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Goalkeepers Partnership Travel Grant Recipient, 2016 Aspen Institute Spotlight Health Scholar, and a 2016 United State of Women Summit ‘Nominated Changemaker.’ New York State Governor David Paterson appointed her to the Interagency Council for Services to the Deaf, Deaf-Blind, and Hard of Hearing twice. Federal Communication Commission (FCC) Chairman Kevin J. Martin appointed her twice to represent the interests of people with hearing loss for two terms on the FCC’s Consumer Advisory Committee. The New York City Mayor’s Office appointed her to the Taxi of Tomorrow Stakeholder Committee. The US Access Board appointed Janice to both the Rail Committee and the Passenger Vessel Emergency Alarms Advisory Committee.

Janice is an Advisory Board member of The Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University. She is a former member of The Lower East Side Tenement Museum’s Advisory Committee. She has participated in six Renaissance Weekend retreats for leaders in business and finance, government, the media, religion, medicine, science, technology, and the arts.

Janice is also a Consumer Education/Travel/Food writer. Thrive Global, The Outdoor Journal, Forbes/Lifestyle, Forbes Woman Africa, Yahoo Travel, Huffington Post, Johnny Jet, and Consumer Mojo published her articles. Condé Nast Traveler, Departures, Travel + Leisure, Good Housekeeping, Skift, Southern Living, Fox Business, NPR, MSN.com, and Reader’s Digest have quoted her and included her recommendations. She has traveled to 139+3 UN countries and 194 Travelers’ Century Club destinations and is on a quest to visit every country in the world.

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About The Hearing Matters Podcast
The Hearing Matters Podcast discusses hearing technology (more commonly known as hearing aids), best practices, and a growing national epidemic - Hearing Loss. The show is hosted by father and son - Blaise Delfino, M.S. - HIS and Dr. Gregory Delfino, CCC-A. Blaise Delfino and Dr. Gregory Delfino treat patients with hearing loss at Audiology Services, located in Bethlehem, Nazareth, and East Stroudsburg, PA.

On this episode, Blaise and Dr. Delfino welcome Dr. Douglas L. Beck as their featured guest! Dr. Douglas L. Beck earned his undergraduate degree (B.A.) in Communication Disorders & Sciences (1982) and his master's degree in audiology from the University of Buffalo (1984) and his doctorate  (Au.D., Doctor of Audiology) from the University of Florida, Gainesville (2000).

His professional career began in Los Angeles at the House Ear Institute in clinical audiology, cochlear implant research, and intraoperative cranial nerve monitoring.  In 1988, he was appointed Director of Audiology at Saint Louis University in the department of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery. Eight years later he co-founded a multi-office hearing aid dispensing practice in St. Louis, Missouri.  In 1999, he became President and Editor-In-Chief of; AudiologyOnline.com, SpeechPathology.com and HealthyHearing.com. 

Dr. Beck joined Oticon in August, 2005. In December, 2019 he was promoted to Vice President of Academic Sciences at Oticon Inc.

Dr. Beck is among the most prolific authors in audiology with 188 publications and more than 1275 abstracts, interviews, and op-eds written for the AAA (2008-2015), Hearing Review (1990- 2020) and Audiology Online (1999-2005) addressing a wide variety of audiology and professional topics including; audiology, the profession of audiology, pediatric audiology, cognition, hearing aids, audition, counseling and more.

On this episode we discuss: 

• Cognition, Audition, and Amplification 
• Top Down, Bottom Up Approach as it Pertains to Hearing Aid Fittings
• Pragmatics and Hearing Aid Fittings 
• Velox S Platform Findings 
• Understanding Speech on Par with Individuals with Normal Hearing Sensitivity 
• The Importance of Real Ear Measurement (and why you should visit a hearing healthcare provider who conducts REM on a regular basis) 
• The Essentials of a Successful Hearing Aid Fitting
• The Importance of Conducting Speech in Noise Testing 
• Going Beyond the Decibel 
• The Importance of Visiting Your Hearing Healthcare Provider Annually 

Are you new to wearing hearing aids?

Welcome to your new hearing world! You made the important decision to increase your speech understanding and decrease your overall listening effort. Moving forward with hearing aids can be scary. Maybe you've heard stories of friends or family purchasing hearing aids and wearing them in the drawer. However, when patients are fit with hearing aids using best practices (real ear measurement, outcome measurements, etc.) they adapt to their new hea

Connect with the Hearing Matters Podcast Team

Email: hearingmatterspodcast@gmail.com

Instagram: @hearing_matters_podcast

Twitter: @hearing_mattas

Facebook: Hearing Matters Podcast

January 28, 2018 was Caroline's last deaf day. Two years later - to the day - Caroline and Andreas catch up on the long podcast-free period (most of 2019): Caroline is listening to podcasts. A lot of them. Constantly. Caroline talks about her favourite podcasts, her favourite podcast and radio voices, what it's like to hear on vacation, a technical glitch over Christmas, how the sound of a doorknob will rock your world. And she talks lingering self-doubt.

Connect with the Hearing Matters Podcast Team

Email: hearingmatterspodcast@gmail.com

Instagram: @hearing_matters_podcast

Twitter: @hearing_mattas

Facebook: Hearing Matters Podcast

In November 2018, Caroline and Andreas received a Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital Foundation "Courage Award," recognizing extraordinary efforts in approaching Caroline's hearing and loss, but also for their advocacy, awareness, and mentoring.

The Courage Gala on April 12 was a memorable evening. The gala theme was "The Colours of Courage." There was food. There was drink. There was music. They got up in front of a thousand people and talked about hearing.

Most epsiodes of My Beautiful Cyborg are explicitly about hearing. This episode is the evidence of hearing. With her ability to hear with her Cochlear implant, Caroline can be with friends and enjoy an evening out in a noisy public setting, and gets a chance to recount a night out - and NOT be corrected on the conversations she had, or what happened.

This is what it sounds like to be amazed how hearing lets you enjoy other things.

#deafnotdeaf #shecanhear #loveyourhearing

https://www.glenrosefoundation.com
https://topcooilsite.com

It's Celebration time. It's about time. In mid-February Caroline and Andreas traveled to Nashville to speak and take in Cochlear Celebration. It was all go go go and rush rush rush once they got back. One more big event with a talk, and another coming up at the end of May, the pair have had their hands full. Plus the mentoring, plus the day to day re-ordering of your life once it's been blown to unrecognizable but much better smithereens.

Cochlear is Caroline's implant manufacturer. Every two years it invites all its implantees to gather (in the USA - in 2019 it was in Nashville, TN). There are lectures, information sessions, training, new product demos, free hardware service and cleaning, and just the real joy of being with people who know you're just like everyone else, but a little more like each other.

When you gather together over 1000 cochlear implantees of all ages, and loved ones, there are going to be stories, memories, and awkward moments. The Celebration Time episode has it all -- catch up!

http://www.mybeautifulcyborg.com
Twitter: @mybionicear
Instagram: mybeautifulcyborg

ps: yes, we're dropping the whole numbered episode thing...you're welcome.

Sunday Service 4-14-19

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There are few times in life when the line between yesterday and today changes everything.

January 28, 2018 was Caroline's last deaf day.

The Activation Episode is about January 29, 2018.

Caroline and Andreas listen to Caroline's activation audio. Activation was billboarded on multiple previous podcasts, but life took a turn as we learned to cope with being a hearing couple. It's been a year, okay?

We think this episode was worth the wait. This isn't bombast and fanfare. This is awakening and discovery.

As always, it's honest and raw, from the compressed tedium of setup and calibration, to Caroline's first hearing moment. And yes, you CAN hear it; best first words ever.

Honestly? Listen. It's more fun to hear someone regain their hearing than to read about it.

http://www.mybeautifulcyborg.com

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Good hearing promotes good health. Take the opportunity to visit an audiologist to make sure your hearing is healthy. Google: local audiologist

For more information about hearing loss or Cochlear Implants, please visit:
https://www.cochlear.com/intl/home/understand

Caroline turns the tables and sits on the other side of the table as she asks Andreas about his hearing. Which is, in a word, unusual.

It's another twist in a love story about hearing. Ironically, Andreas reveals that being able to hear everything isn't always what it's cracked up to be. But in the end, even if you live on opposite ends of the hearing spectrum, together is better.

Caroline & Andreas will be speaking at Cochlear Celebration in Nashville, TN - https://www.cochlear.com/us/recipients/promo/celebration/index.html

For the first Better Hearing Month (in May) Caroline's audiologist tested Andreas's hearing. And yes, getting to a hearing tests is hard to do.

Put on your big girl/boy pants - get your hearing tested by a certified audiologist every five years. It's better than never, and it beats the average amount of time it takes for people to get checked because they think they're losing their hearing (8 to 10 years).

http://www.mybeautifulcyborg.com

*Long story short, it was the first time Caroline ever suggested a podcast title, even as a joke. Which this was. This gets explained early on, otherwise the title would be a distraction.

After a hectic Christmas holidays with family and friends, Caroline and Andreas settle back into whatever routine they can manage. In the spirit of Auld Lang Syne, they reflect on seemingly routine little things that stop them in their tracks. Conversations with normal flow, a stranger asking directions, a fart. They're major -- yes you read that right, a far...if you want to find out why a fart was a major sign of success, you'll just have to listen. Where was I...oh yes, a major fart. No, no, no. Blah blah blah, conversations with a normal flow, directions...a fart...all are major milestones. And yes, seriously, a fart was the sign of something important. We probably should have called it "the Fart Episode," but I mean, there's a line. Caroline's "Hearing Tip of the Week" is cheap, easy, and polite (and polite is sexy). It's not always pretty, but this episode, join My Beautiful Cyborg on what it's like to regain hearing. Sometimes it's a gas, which can be an epiphany. On epiphany.

On December 12, 2018 Caroline and Andreas tried to have a normal morning. You know, do all the normal things like pack up a day bag, take a change of clothes, and hold your husband's hand uncomfortably tightly as you find your way to the hospital admissions desk. There's nothing much normal about implant surgery day.  To celebrate implant surgery day, Caroline listens to something she's never heard before: audio from the pre-operative meeting with surgeon, Dr. Richard Liu. Before implant surgery, you have the opportunity to meet with the surgeon and ask questions. Caroline struggled to hear in the doctor's office with noisy ventilation (which is everywhere). For the first time since the consultation, she hears Dr. Liu and Andreas talk about the doctor's experience, the procedure, risks, and expected outcome from the cochlear implant surgery. Caroline has revelations - and questions - because, even though she was in the meeting, she didn't hear it. That's hearing loss. Join Caroline and Andreas as they celebrate one year of Caroline officially becoming My Beautiful Cyborg. And FTR, there are 9 years left on the implant warranty. 

My Beautiful Cyborg returns. Finally. Caroline begins with an apology: "I broke the podcast!" What the heck happened? A deaf woman regained her hearing - that's the opposite of breaking something.

Now Caroline is #deafnotdeaf. Why drop off the radar? It has to be all good news right? Absolutely. But it's possible to be overjoyed.

Caroline and Andreas talk about coming out of the fog of reflection. They thought they had an exciting story to tell before. It turns out hearing is like an onion. A very big onion. My Beautiful Cyborg has discovered more about hearing and how it connects us than she imagined. She's finally ready to tell the story of her hearing, and yours.