{"id":18802,"date":"2018-01-18T12:53:32","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T17:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/?p=18802"},"modified":"2018-01-18T12:53:32","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T17:53:32","slug":"student-project-hearing-assistance-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/2018\/01\/18\/student-project-hearing-assistance-innovation\/","title":{"rendered":"Student project: Hearing Assistance Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"
HEARING LOSS INNOVATION<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
NYU STUDENT INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAM OPPORTUNITY<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Professors Jan Blustein and Scott Taitel of NYU Wagner are seeking to form an interdisciplinary<\/div>\n
team of students across NYU to investigate innovative solutions to address the technology,<\/div>\n
business and policy challenges around hearing loss. The solution will likely require policy<\/div>\n
competencies around aging, disability and broad analytic approaches, technology<\/div>\n
competencies around audiology, sound and product engineering and programming and<\/div>\n
business competencies around product design and marketing making this a unique opportunity<\/div>\n
for a strong interdisciplinary team with student engagement across multiple NYU schools.<\/div>\n
The Problem: Rates of hearing loss increase dramatically with age. By age 65, 1 in 3 adults has<\/div>\n
a clinically significant hearing loss; by age 80, 80% have a hearing loss.<\/div>\n
Currently, 1 in 5 people who could benefit from a hearing aid wears one. Barriers to ownership<\/div>\n
are complex, and include high cost (hearing aids cost ca. $2500 each; they are not covered by<\/div>\n
Medicare or most health insurance programs); stigma (for many, wearing a hearing aid is<\/div>\n
associated with old age), and poor device performance (hearing aids amplify sounds somewhat<\/div>\n
indiscriminant manner; many people just can\u2019t adapt to them). For a summary of these barriers<\/div>\n
and more, see this.<\/div>\n
The Opportunity: There are opportunities for innovation on many fronts. Two big areas are:<\/div>\n
Hearing aids (HAs)<\/div>\n
Hearing aids are medical devices designed to treat hearing loss, and so they are subject to tight<\/div>\n
FDA regulation. The global market (4.5 billion in sales in 2015) is dominated by 7 firms, only<\/div>\n
one of which is US-based. Manufacturers partner with audiologists, with whom they have<\/div>\n
historically had close relationships. The typical old-fashioned audiologist cooperates with ca. 2<\/div>\n
of the firms, selling just their lines. These arrangements are being disrupted by several<\/div>\n
developments that are bringing the cost of hearing aids down, and will likely bring costs down<\/div>\n
further.<\/div>\n
\uf0b7 Sales of hearing aids at big box stores like Costco<\/div>\n
\uf0b7 Sales of hearing aids online (e.g. Audicus)<\/div>\n
\uf0b7 Congressional passage of an Over-the- Counter hearing aid bill this summer, which has<\/div>\n
mandated that the FDA relax regulation of devices.<\/div>\n
In addition, innovations in engineering may lead to the development of \u201csmarter\u201d, more<\/div>\n
effective HAs.<\/div>\n
A key point: hearing loss is complicated! Getting a hearing aid fitted and learning to use a<\/div>\n
hearing aid is not trivial. Hearing aids are not like glasses \u2013 it\u2019s not a \u201cyou put them on and they<\/div>\n
work\u201d device. So, it\u2019s a big open question as to how effectively people can fit their own devices.<\/div>\n
This caveat extends to the discussion of \u201chearables,\u201d below.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Consumer electronics devices (\u201chearables\u201d)<\/div>\n
The hearing aid monopoly has had little incentive to innovate — – Has have not come down in<\/div>\n
price in the past 30 years. But the consumer electronics industry is now entering the hearing<\/div>\n
assistance space. It appears that developers have several goals, including:<\/div>\n
\uf0b7 Lower cost<\/div>\n
\uf0b7 Non-stigmatizing appearance (cool looks like wireless headphones; marketing devices as<\/div>\n
\u201cconversation enhancers\u201d rather than \u201chearing aids\u201d)<\/div>\n
\uf0b7 Better, more adaptive functioning (hearing aids are typically \u201cset it and forget it\u201d; some<\/div>\n
hearables can be adjusted on-the- fly)<\/div>\n
\uf0b7 Pairing with smartphones<\/div>\n
Hearables and hearing assistance devices come in many forms. See for example Bose\u2019s Hear<\/div>\n
Phones, Jacoti\u2019s Listen App (and LoLa).<\/div>\n
Despite these incremental improvements, this continues to be a complex issue in which there is<\/div>\n
not a single, silver bullet, but the moment has come where innovative solutions will receive<\/div>\n
tremendous attention and will likely be attractive to funders.<\/div>\n
Call to Action<\/div>\n
Students interested in this opportunity should reach out to either Jan Blustein (jb81@nyu.edu)<\/div>\n
or Scott Taitel (sbt3@nyu.edu) who will work with the students to organize a workshop where<\/div>\n
initial questions will be addressed and resources will be identified to determine next steps.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HEARING LOSS INNOVATION NYU STUDENT INTERDISCIPLINARY TEAM OPPORTUNITY Professors Jan Blustein and Scott Taitel of NYU Wagner are seeking to form an interdisciplinary team of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-job","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/itp.nyu.edu\/opportunities\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}