Register for OTC Hearing Aids – Mastering the Market and the Business Model to Maximize Opportunities in Your Practice. This three-part webinar series, featuring Dr. Brent Edwards, Dr. Larry Humes, and Dr. Michael Valente will offer attendees valuable insight into the OTC hearing aid market, including consumer dynamics, and demonstrates how to maximize business opportunities in your practice.
This timely webinar series, underwritten by Phonak, is open to ADA members and audiologists who are interested in a complementary ADA trial membership (trial membership limited to new members only, please). Attendees may register for one, two, or all three sessions.
Part I: Defining the Addressable Market of OTC vs. Prescription Hearing Aids: Expanding the Market with Something for Everyone
The first presentation from this series, which aired on March 7th, was a resounding success with over 250+ participants. Visit the ADA website to view the recorded presentation today and complete the evaluation for your CE Credit.
Presented by: Brent Edwards, Ph.D.
Moderator: Shannon Basham, Au.D.
Abstract: Hearing healthcare is evolving faster than it ever has. New approaches to hearing health service delivery are providing alternatives to face-to-face practitioner care that has been the cornerstone for hearing healthcare for decades. Additionally, a new segment of people with hearing difficulty is emerging as an opportunity for hearing healthcare to provide solutions. All these changes present both challenges and opportunities for hearing care providers and their business.
Research at the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL) in a variety of areas to understand the OTC market, device use and acceptance will be reviewed, with insight into understanding these changes and provide guidance on how hearing care professionals can manage this evolution in hearing healthcare.
Part II: Empowering Adults to Manage Their Hearing Problems and How Audiologists Can Help
The second presentation from this series, which aired on March 14th, was a resounding success with over 300+ participants. Visit the ADA website to view the recorded presentation today and complete the evaluation for your CE Credit.
Presented by: Larry Humes, Ph.D.
Moderator: Shannon Basham, Au.D.
Abstract: Despite the widespread presence of mild-to-moderate hearing loss in adults and the positive outcomes that have been demonstrated for intervention with hearing aids less than 20% of those who could benefit from hearing aids seek them out and use them. The problem of limited uptake and use of hearing aids has been largely attributed to poor accessibility and affordability of Hearing Healthcare (HHC) services. This long-standing problem was the primary impetus for the OTC Hearing Aid Act and the adoption of FDA guidelines for those devices in 2022. This presentation will describe a self-driven, rather than professional-driven, approach to auditory wellness, one that assumes access to OTC hearing aids, and will present evidence in support of its viability for adults with mild-to-moderate hearing loss. The role of the hearing healthcare provider in such a model will also be discussed.
Part III: Addressing OTC’s by integrating an alternative to OTC via unbundling, counseling, remote care and remote fine-tuning.
When: March 21st @ 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time
Presented by: Michael Valente, Ph.D.
Moderator: Shannon Basham, Au.D.
Abstract: OTC hearing aids can present an opportunity for practice growth and should be viewed as an opportunity and not a threat. This presentation will provide an overview of how OTC hearing aids were integrated into a clinic practice using an entry-level hearing aid, dispensed using an unbundled approach. The presentation will present information on how to create an unbundled dispensing model and provide information on how to include remote care and remote fine-tuning.
Meet the Presenters
Brent Edwards, Ph.D.
Brent Edwards Ph.D. is the Director of the National Acoustic Laboratories (NAL), an Australian Federal Government hearing loss research centre, where he is currently leading research and innovation initiatives that focus on transforming hearing healthcare. For over 22 years he headed research at major hearing aid companies (GN ReSound, Starkey) and at Silicon Valley startups that have developed innovative technologies and clinical tools used worldwide. Dr. Edwards founded and ran 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 and an Adjunct Professor at Macquarie University.
Larry E. Humes, Ph.D.
Larry E. Humes, Ph.D. has served as associate editor and editor for several audiology journals. Professor Humes has received the Honors of the Association and the Alfred Kawana Award for Lifetime Achievement in Publications from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and the James Jerger Career Award for Research in Audiology from the American Academy of Audiology. In 2020, he gave the Carhart Memorial Lecture at the American Auditory Society.
Michael Valente, Ph.D.
Michael Valente, Ph.D. is Professor Emeritus of Clinical Otolaryngology at Washington University in St. Louis. For 34 years he directed the Division of Adult Audiology. In that position, Mike was active in the clinic, directed the Hearing Aid Research Lab, taught graduate courses in amplification and the business component of Audiology and he administered the Division of Adult Audiology. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1975.
Shannon Basham, Au.D.
Shannon Basham, Au.D. is the Senior Director of Audiology and Education for the Sonova Wholesale Hearing Instrument business. An audiologist herself, she brings years of experience to her current role where she is dedicated to educating and inspiring other hearing healthcare professionals to provide life changing solutions that meet the individualized needs of patients with hearing loss. Curious by nature, she seeks out all things that lead to improve the human experience and overall well-being. Although rarely home, she, her husband Mike, and their son John Michael call the Atlanta area home.
The Academy of Doctors of Audiology is approved by the American Academy of Audiology to offer Academy CEUs for this activity. The program is worth a maximum of 0.3 CEUs. Academy approval of this continuing education activity is based on course content only and does not imply endorsement of course content, specific products, or clinical procedure, or adherence of the event to the Academy's Code of Ethics. Any views that are presented are those of the presenter/CE Provider and not necessarily of the American Academy of Audiology. Each webinar is worth a maximum of 0.1 CEUs each.