Raul Sanchez-Lopez1, Mengfan Wu2,3, Michal Fereczkowski2,3, Sébastien Santurette1,4, Torsten Dau1, Tobias Neher2,3
1Hearing Systems Section, Dept. of Health Technology, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs. Lyngby, DK
2Institute of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, DK
3Research Unit for ORL – Head & Neck Surgery and Audiology, Odense
University Hospital, Odense, DK; University of Southern Denmark, Odense, DK
4Centre for Applied Audiology Research, Oticon A/S, Smørum, DK
In current clinical practice, hearing aids are typically fitted based on audiometric thresholds only, even though research suggests that suprathreshold factors play a role for aided outcome, too. In 2016, the Danish ‘Better hEAring Rehabilitation’ (BEAR) project was initiated with the overall goal of improving hearing-aid rehabilitation. A focus area in that project has been the development of a method for classifying hearing-impaired listeners into four profiles capturing distinct differences in terms of audiometric hearing loss and suprathreshold hearing abilities. Additional focus areas have been the development of an auditory profile-based fitting strategy and the investigation of aided speech-in-noise outcome in those profiles. In this contribution, we will provide an overview of these research activities. Emphasis will be placed on insights gained with respect to the characterization of individual hearing losses and the translation of the resultant findings into solutions that are implementable in clinically available hearing devices.
Acknowledgements: This research was funded by Innovation Fund Denmark Grand Solutions 5164-00011B (‘BEAR project’), GN Hearing, Oticon and WS Audiology. The collaboration with other partners (Aalborg University, Force as well as the university hospitals in Odense, Copenhagen and Aalborg) is sincerely acknowledged.