Community-built hearing aids
Could we build a hearing aid? By we I mean me, you, the guy studying audiology at university, the hard of hearing electrical engineer and all the other people.
In computer software there’s a thing called open source. What it means is that someone, or some people, build something and they don’t just release the finished product they also give the source code away too. Source code is the programming language statements that were used to make the software.
Basically, they give anyone the means to build the software themselves for free. Do you use the Firefox web browser? That’s open source, anyone is free to download it’s source code and change it, improve it, package it in different ways and sell it as something else.
Could a whole bunch of people do this with a hearing aid? Could we get together the right skills and build an aid and make the details of how to do it free for anyone to see so that other people can take it and improve it?
Of course, I’m not suggesting building a hearing aid is easy – years of research has already gone into making the products we buy today. But there are clever people out there who would get into a project like this – it works with computer software and has been working for years.
No one person could do this, but a group could and that’s the power of open source.
I’d love to hear your opinion on this. Want to talk about it? Leave a comment or contact me directly.
The Canadian Hearing Society decided 25 years ago to offer a reasonably priced alternative to hearing aid dealers who were charging criminally high markups and dispensing expensive brand-name aids.
At CHS audiologists prescribed and sold generic hearing aids at cost plus a small markup (then it was $50) to cover supplies. Instead of thousands, aids cost hundreds.
For sure there was flak from the dealers who feared that it would hurt their business, and probably it did, as CHS became Canada’s largest dispenser of hearing aids within a few years.
However, the dealers did not go out of business and many more people got aids than would have otherwise.
I’d check with them on their current activity and whether their business model can be copied elsewhere. Their website is at http://www.chs.ca (I have no present connection to this agency, but was employed there in the 70’s-80’s.)
Interesting idea!
I would be willing to help out with obtaining research materials as the group’s librarian. I have access to audiology textbooks at the university I work for.
@Dianrez
Thanks for the info. If you have any other info about manufacturing or hearing aid components then please drop me a line. Thanks again.
@Sarah
Thanks for the interest. Lets hope some other people get on board too.
In the UK you already have aids that only cost hundreds. In fact if you check just about any hearing aid website you will see a version of “Two For Price Of One”; “Buy One, Get One Free”; “Half-Price”; “50% Off” all leading to essentially two digital hearing aids for £495.
Now this is fine if, like Canada and virtually every other country on the planet, you all bought hearing aids – it becomes a viable business model. But in the UK where nearly 1,000,000 hearing aids are given away “free” each year [remember you've already paid through your taxes, but have no say on which ones you get, when or where]; supplying fewer than 200,000 in the private sector at the “$50″ mark-up as suggested in the earlier post wouldn’t work on simple economics. There are approximately 1500 professionals registered to legally sell hearing aids in the UK and the sums above would not even cover them getting an NHS audiologist’s starter salary let alone cover all the costs required to run a professional practice.
The true costs of supplying NHS hearing aids in the UK is never disclosed fully as it is over £1000 per head.
Believe me, if we could supply hearing aids at £50 and cover all costs and make a profit, we would – it would be a lot easier to sell!
the free nhs system continues to strangle the private market,lay offs galore, contracts to be renegotiated in jan 2010 at Hidden Hearring,independents selling up to major chains ..its all rather bleak for the private sector as they attempt to grab nhs contracts with the hope they can flog private aids to the unsuspecting NHS punter. its survival of the fittest and least greedy
As an engineer, I’ve wondered if the end user could program their own aid, after a medical visit has given the okay.
I envision a headphone test on their PC to assess their hearing at various frequencies, and then a download of their “eq settings” from the PC onto their aid. Perhaps there is room for user preferences here also. Have I oversimplified things?
@Mitch
When you visit an audiologist to get a hearing aid they are required by law to give you a hearing test. The output of a test is an audiogram, which shows your level of hearing loss at different frequencies. The audiogram is then used to program the aids.
There are some self-programmers around. The America Hears company sells aids via the web and they come with a programmer but you do have to submit an audiogram first. Some people have bought the hardware that audiologists used to programme aids and do it themselves, but the machines are expensive.
There are some online hearing tests that give you an indication of a hearing loss but you should always visit an audiologist to get a proper and correct test performed.