October 6, 2022
This comprehensive podcast, produced by The Hearing Journal, the premier publication for hearing health professionals, features Intricon’s senior medical science, clinical, and regulatory affairs liaison, Dr. David Akbari. Dr. Akbari discusses his predictions on the impact of the recent FDA ruling that allows hearing aids to be sold over the counter, without the need for an audiologist.
The FDA decision ends five years of commentary and speculation on how OTC hearing aids will impact on people with mild to moderate hearing loss and hearing health practitioners.
The podcast is part of a four-part series examining the game-changing transformation of the industry. In this episode, Dr. Akbari and other guests review the FDA OTC rule and:
- Defining an OTC device – how it’s different than prescriptive hearing aids
- Quality control and standards, including performance criteria – higher threshold of performance rigor to be marketed and labeled as OTC hearing aids
- Holistic care model for OTC hearing aids
- Role of the audiologist
- Benefits of OTC to audiology model
- Distribution at the state level
- Fitting hearing aids
Dr. Akbari has been very active in hearing health industry professional associations involved in setting standards for objective measurement of quality and performance of OTC hearing aids.
The podcast is available at https://journals.lww.com/thehearingjournal/pages/podcastepisodes.aspx?podcastid=4 and on Stitcher, Apple podcasts, and Spotify.