Starkey Sound Bites

Starkey President and CEO Brandon Sawalich stopped by the podcast this month to highlight growing opportunities for hearing healthcare professionals to help more people than ever before. This May, which is the first Better Hearing and Speech Month since the FDA created a new category for OTC hearing aids, Sawalich reflects on how hearing healthcare professionals can take advantage of OTC as a steppingstone towards greater awareness about hearing health. He and Dave also chat about Starkey’s latest hearing technology, Genesis AI, and how it stands up to the competition.

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A recent study by the American Journal of Audiology found rates of tinnitus within the U.S. Army to be much higher than the general population. In this episode, Dave talks with Dr. Brandon Rawlings, an audiologist and an active member of the U.S. Army Reserves about the hearing health of our service men and women, and resources for treatment and support.

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What is Auditory Processing Disorder? How does it interfere with how the brain processes sound? How can you help patients who are struggling with APD and may not even know it?

In this episode, Dave talks with Dr. Angela Loucks Alexander, an audiologist and founder of the Auditory Processing Institute. They answer those questions and much more – including the difference between oral rehabilitation and auditory training, and why vulnerability is a key to truly understanding your patients in order to help them live their best lives. 

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Starkey’s revolutionary hearing technology was designed specifically to make life easier for hearing healthcare providers. In this episode, Starkey’s Chief Audiology Officer and Executive Vice President of Product Strategy, Dr. Sara Burdak, joins Dave to talk about exactly what that means. From fitting software that works in a matter of minutes to a more intuitive app, learn about the decisions that went into Genesis AI – all of them, with the provider in mind.

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Starkey’s Genesis AI is our greatest engineering achievement to date. The journey to reach the recent launch of Genesis AI began in 2017, when Achin Bhowmik, Ph.D., stepped into the role of Chief Technology Officer and Executive Vice President of Engineering at Starkey. The former Intel Corporation executive and Starkey President and CEO Brandon Sawalich kept the project under wraps for five years. In this episode of Starkey Sound Bites, Dr. Bhowmik shares the backstory with podcast host and Chief Innovation Officer Dave Fabry. He also dives into the high-tech details of what separates Genesis AI hearing aids from the rest:  they are built to mimic the brain. Find out what this means for the patient experience and where hearing healthcare providers will see the benefits.

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World Hearing Day is observed every year on March 3. This year, to mark this important occasion, Dave sat down for an extended conversation with Dr. Sara Burdak, Starkey’s Chief Audiology Officer, and Michael Scholl, Starkey’s Executive Vice President of Corporate Relations. They discuss a wide range of topics related to the importance of better hearing, including the startling projection by the World Health Organization that upwards of 700 million people by 2050 will have a disabling degree of hearing loss. For this year’s World Hearing Day theme, the WHO put special emphasis on highlighting the importance of integrating hearing care into overall healthcare, and specifically within primary care. The Starkey panel talks about all of that and much more in this special edition of Starkey Sound Bites.

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Dr. Jessica Dimmick wears many hats: audiologist, business owner and civic leader for the hearing industry. In this episode, she shares insights from across the wide spectrum of her career experience. Dr. Dimmick talks about her early days as an audiologist, and how she’s grown her practice, Hearing Doctors of the Heartland, across three states in the Midwest. She also offers insights from her experience as an ambassador for Starkey’s Listen Carefully initiative, which aims to bridge the conversation between hearing healthcare providers and lawmakers in Washington, D.C. Learn about best practices for your clinic, tips for young hearing healthcare professionals just starting out, why she thought OTC would mean the demise of her career and what changed her mind, and much more.

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During Tinnitus Awareness Week, Dave dives into the topic with a Starkey subject matter expert: Dr. Jamie Hand. While you may be aware that veterans experience higher rates of tinnitus than the general public, you may be surprised to learn another group is at high risk -- dentists and dental hygienists. Dr. Hand talks about the findings of a study she conducted that show the need for hearing protection and hearing screenings within this profession. She and Dave also talk about treatment for ringing in the ears, red flags for both patients and providers, and tips for hearing professionals on how to best assist people struggling with this oftentimes frustrating condition.  

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Resources:

To read Dr. Jamie Myers Hand’s study: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27991466/

To learn more about tinnitus click here: https://www.starkey.com/tinnitus

From telehealth to OTC, Dr. Kent Collins has spent his career turning potential threats into growth opportunities for hearing care practices across the country. As the Global Director of Clinical Operations for Audibel, Dr. Collins has developed strategies for success and compiled the data to prove they work. In this episode, he and Dave talk tactics for business growth in this new era of OTC hearing aids, why hearing healthcare professionals have a huge advantage over the competition, and why patient satisfaction should continue to be the top priority.   

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Every case of hearing loss is unique, and so is every ear. Ray Woodworth understands this so well, he teaches a class called “The Ear is the Boss”. For more than 20 years, Woodworth has worked alongside Starkey founder Bill Austin, mastering the craft of custom hearing aid solutions. In this episode, he explains why understanding the structure of someone’s ear is the key to treating their hearing loss, and why OTC hearing aids aren’t the right fit for everyone. He also shares some tricks of the trade when you’re shooting an ear mold impression and how to help your patients through the process. This episode is packed with news hearing care providers can use. Don’t miss it!  

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